PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL

Fabled furry weather predictor

Each February 2, many people all over the world watch for the report from the famous groundhog from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. They are anxious to find out if the "sage of sages, the seer of seers, the prognosticator of prognosticators", will predict six more weeks of winter. It has become an event, even a Hollywood movie, with thousands attending the ceremony, many watching it live on television or over the internet, and millions more listening for the reports of his conclusions.

Groundhog Day traces its beginnings to two sources. The early indians of the area, the Lenni Lenape, believed their ancestors long ago began as animals, and that the woodchuck, or groundhog, was the most important of these. Also, in Europe of long ago, a Christian tradition of Candlemas (celebrated on February 2) was tied into the weather. As an old English song tells it:
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Come, winter, have another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain
Go winter, and come not again.
German Christians took this tradition and looked to the hedgehog as a symbol of whether it was sunny or cloudy enough. When Germans came to Pennsylvania they brought this tradition with them. Not having hedgehogs, they used the similar groundhog, already highly regarded by the Native Americans.

In 1887, Clymer Freas recalled the legend of the hedgehog, and the groundhog, while hunting groundhogs. As the city editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper, he began reporting every February 2 on the Punxsutawney Phil's predictions, and named the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. W. O. Smith was a U. S. Congressman who also became owner of the Spirit. He kept the legend alive, hoping the publicity would help attract industrial development in the area. Other leaders have helped build the traditions that we see today, and each year it seems to grow bigger, and Punxsutawney can truly claim to be the "Weather Capital of the World".