Snow, Spring and Shadows by Cindy Regnier

In a few days, many Americans will celebrate a fun and lighthearted ceremony we call Groundhog Day. Did you ever wonder where or why this tradition started? Let’s find out.

A Christian religious holiday most Americans have never observed or even heard of called Candlemas Day may be the origin. Candlemas started out as the day, (February 2nd), when Christians took their candles to the church to have them blessed. 

 This blessing would bring blessings to their household for the remaining winter. But, with time, the day evolved into something very different. The English came to see the date as a weather prediction due to a folk song that became popular for the day:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Come, Winter, have another flight;
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go Winter, and come not again.

Even though there’s no mention of any animal in the lyrics, the Germans were first to include an animal in the story. According to German folklore, if the hedgehog saw his shadow on Candlemas day, you could expect a “Second Winter” or 6 more weeks of winter weather.

hedgehog

 As German immigrants settled in what is now the United States, they brought their folklore and traditions along with them. Unfortunately, hedgehogs weren’t nearly as common in the new country as in Germany, so a similar hibernating animal took its place – the groundhog. This brings us to still another evolution in the tradition of February 2nd, and to present day Punxsutawney.

 

 

  The first “official” Groundhog Day celebration took place on February 2, 1887, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. This 1887 version took place due to a publicity event planned by a local newspaper editor named Clymer Freas. 

 

Freas

Freas got together a group of local businessmen they called the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. The PGC hiked to a place known as Gobbler’s Knob where the inaugural Phil of the day became the bearer of bad news when he saw his shadow. It must have been a very popular idea as the tradition stuck. Punxsutawney Phil still presides over the day in yearly festivities before thousands of people where a group of local dignitaries in top hats speak to Phil in “groundhogese” to learn his prediction.

According to his handlers, the current Phil weighs 15 pounds and thrives on dog food and ice cream in his climate-controlled home at the Punxsutawney Library. On Feb 2nd, Phil is placed in a heated burrow underneath a simulated tree stump on a stage at Gobbler’s Knob before being pulled out at 7:25 a.m. to make his prediction. So, that’s an amazing leap from taking a candle to church, but here we are. This Groundhog Day, have fun with the traditions, but be thankful your blessings don’t come from a candle or a groundhog named Phil! 

A woman running from the law, a man determined not to risk his heart again, and a love neither of them bargained for.