ruary 2nd was Groundhog Day, a day many of us just overlook and pass off as unimportant. Although I am guilty of committing such acts of uninterest towards Groundhog Day, I did a little research about the holiday and found out that it is a much bigger event in other parts of the country. The largest Groundhog Day celebration is in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where crowds made up of as many as 40,000 people have gathered to celebrate the holiday since at least 1886. In fact, the holiday began as a Pennsylvania German custom in Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries. Groundhog Day has its origins in ancient European weather lore, where a badger or bear is observed, as opposed to a groundhog. It also has similarities to the medieval Catholic holiday Candlemas and the Pagan festival Imbolc, which also involves predictions of the weather. While we may pass off the predictions of the groundhogs as unnecesary, due to the many various sources of weather prediction that are avaliable to us through the media, ancient cultures may have relied on the groundhog or other animals to accurately predict the weather for them.
The most famous modern groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, predicted that there would be six more weeks of winter this year. No surprise for Chicago weather! So, come February 2nd of the year 2010, make sure to appreciate the prediction for Groundhog Day as a look back into history when people didn't have the morning news weather report to predict the weather for them.
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