I happened to stumble upon the live stream of Punxsutawney Phil's prediction on Sunday morning just as he was being encouraged out of his hibernating hole. Not surprisingly, Pennsylvania's favorite groundhog says there will be six more weeks on winter. Well, this is not really a disappointment. We here in the north should be so lucky to have only six more weeks. And if you look at the calendar, six weeks from February 2 is March 16. The first official day of Spring this year is March 20. So, according to Phil, we will have spring 4 days early. Sounds good.
I started to wonder why on earth anyone would think a groundhog could predict spring. From Wikipedia, I learned that way back when (year not stated) in Germany, if a hedgehog saw its shadow on February 2, it meant six more weeks of cold, wintry weather. German immigrants in Pennsylvania brought their tradition or superstition with them, transferring the power of weather prediction from hedgehogs to groundhogs. The really strange part of the current festivities is not the top hats and tuxedos. It's the head of the "Inner Circle" who supposedly receives Phil's message in something called "groundhogese." So it has nothing to do with seeing a shadow. It has more to do with one guy's whims? Feel free to correct me if I've misunderstood this.
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