 February 2nd Ground Hog Day
By Monica Lewis
Punxsutawney, (Ponksad-uteney) Pennsylvania in 1723 was a Delaware Indian campsite founded on the banks halfway between the Allegheny and Susquehanna rivers. "Punxsutawney" means "town of the sand flies". Apart from those often bothersome insects, the town featured another prominent resident the Delaware named, "Wojak." It is from "Wojak" that our name for "wood chuck" is derived. This short legged furry mammal is also known as a "ground hog", but is hardly a "hog." It is a rodent, related to the squirrel family, living and hibernating in a ground burrow during winter's coldest months. Around February 2, or sometimes the first few days of February, a sleepy wood chuck crawls out of his burrow to check out his environment. What he does next, the German immigrants, many of them farmers, were keen to know.
February 2 falls 6 weeks after the winter solstice and 6 weeks before the spring equinox. For a German farmer, if a ground hog emerges from his burrow on a sunny day, his shadow is cast and he returns to his hibernation signaling 6 more weeks of winter. If the ground hog emerges on a cloudy day, his shadow remains invisible and he remains more or less above world. This signals spring will be 6 weeks early. For the German farmers, the ground hog served as a kind of weather indicator to determine when spring planting would begin.
On February 2, 1886, Clyde Freas, editor of "The Punxsutawney Spirit" inspired the first ground hog celebration amongst the townfolk. He wrote, "Today is ground hog day and up to the time of going to press, the beast has not seen his shadow." The editor then named the ground hog, "Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognostication and Weather Prophet Extraordinary." Phil had to become a reality and so it was a group of citizens temporarily captured a ground hog and made a weather predication before allowing Phil to scramble safe back to his burrow.
Today, the crowd celebration borders in the millions as people from all over the world coming to observe "Phil's weather prediction" of whether there will be 6 more weeks of winter or an early spring. "Phil" is currently a semi-tamed ground hog well cared for by human experts. On February 2, a sleepy Phil is briefly held up while his handler "translates" Phil's weather prediction before the crowd of onlookers. Since 1901, there's been more predictions for continued winter weather then an early spring.
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