In the United States and Canada, Groundhog Day is celebrated on February 2 (Groundhog Day), a tradition in which a groundhog indicates whether the winter will still be long and cold or whether spring will come soon. This method, that of observing the movements of animals to predict weather conditions, has very ancient roots in various cultures around the world, but has no scientific basis.
This “holiday” was born thanks to a group of German settlers who settled in Pennsylvania in the first half of the 19th century, and occurs in conjunction with the Catholic feast of Candlemas, which commemorates the presentation of Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem. Candlemas was also celebrated by pagans, but with a different meaning, because for the Celts the day indicates the end of winter and the beginning of spring (Imbolc).
The settlers involved in this story, who were mainly engaged in agriculture, believed that if a groundhog peeked out of his burrow on a sunny day but immediately returned because he was frightened by his own shadow, then winter would continue for another six weeks. If instead it had come out of the den running around the meadows, spring would have been closer. This year, the marmot has returned to his cave, and has decreed that the winter will continue.
However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explained that only 35% of Phil’s predictions were accurate, while New York’s groundhog Chuck surpasses all others with an 85% accuracy rate on his predictions.
The ceremony continued for over a century, reaching our times. The most famous Groundhog Day is undoubtedly that of Punxsutawney (Pennsylvania), known above all thanks to the film “Groundhog Day” (1993), in which the protagonist – with very little desire and a hint of skepticism – goes to the city to follow this tradition. When he wakes up, the man continues to relive the same day, until his love for a woman breaks this sort of dream-nightmare.
After the success of the film in question, the ceremony in this town with a truly unusual name became so well known that it was broadcast live. In Punxsutawney there is an official groundhog, Phil (name given in honor of King Philip of England), who always keeps the same name, but is not (obviously) the same groundhog from the first celebration in 1860. At the time, after the ceremony the groundhogs were hunted to eat them, but fortunately over the decades the hunting has become only a ritual and the groundhogs are released.
