History of Groundhog Day
6AM EST, February 2, 2004
Today is Groundhog Day. Fabled lore
says that if the groundhog sees his
shadow today there will six more weeks
of winter. This morning, the most
famous groundhog of them all saw/did
not see his shadow in Punxsutawney,
Pennsylvania.
It`s hard to imagine in this day in age
how people could give credit to a
groundhog for forecasting the
remainder of the winter. It is much
easier to imagine if you put yourself
back into the 18th and 19th centuries
when people were mystified by how the
weather worked.
Weather played a huge role in the dayto-
day lives of early Americans.
Farmers and businessmen alike relied
heavily on the weather in nearly every
aspect of their day.
Many people searched for signs and
signals in nature to help them
determine weather in the coming days
and weeks and months. This "weather
lore" has often been proven as accurate
through science but equally as much it
has been disproved.
German settlers in Pennsylvania
traditionalized Groundhog Day in the
United States. These settlers brought a
tradition stemming from Candlemas
Day, where Europeans predicted if the
sun shone on that day there would be a
"second winter".
German settlers found a profusion of
ground hogs in the state. They
determined that the groundhog,
resembling the European hedgehog,
was a very intelligent animal. They
therefore decided that if the sun did
appear on February 2nd, such a wise
animal as the groundhog would see its
shadow and hurry back into its
underground home for another six
weeks of winter.
Groundhog Day has links to many
poems and beliefs about the coming
season but it is based on no scientific
fact. In the past 50 years or so,
Groundhog Day has slowly become
more of a fun celebration to break up
the long winter than a forecast of things
to come.
Visit http://www.groundhog.org for more
interesting facts on the history of
Groundhog Day and also the latest on
this year`s winter "prognostication" by
Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous
groundhog.
History of Groundhog Day
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- CaptinCrunch
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History of Groundhog Day
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- tomboudreau
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Woohoo...I survived another groundhog day in Punxsy! And I didnt kill anyone either
I nearly impossible to get from one side of town to the other side of town when this day comes. I for one am glad its over with. And until next year.

Last edited by tomboudreau on Mon Feb 02, 2004 5:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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- tomboudreau
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