Punxsutawny Phil

Do you even know what that is? That is the name of the ground hog that tells us if we will have 6 more weeks of winter of if we are in for an early spring. The whole deal around Groundhog Day, if he sees his own shadow- you know what I am talking about, yes?

Punxautawny is the name of the town where all this groundhog stuff takes place and where Phil lives. But why is this a national holiday? Why do we have Groundhogs day in the first place? While I was determined to find out. After some extensive research I found that Phil's first prediction was in 1887 and that he is wrong more then half the time. Still I was no closer as to learning how we even care what a groundhog thinks about the weather. I continued searching and I came across this:

"The story of Groundhog Day begins with Candlemas, an early Christian holiday where candles were blessed and distributed. Celebrators of holiday eventually declared clear skies on Candlemas meant a longer winter. The Roman legions, during the conquest of the northern country, brought this tradition to the Germans, who concluded that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, a hedgehog would cast a shadow, thus predicting six more weeks of bad weather or "Second Winter." German immigrants brought the tradition to Pennsylvania, but how did Punxsutawney Phil emerge?

In 1887, a spirited group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney dubbed themselves "The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club." One member was an editor of Punxsutawney's newspaper. Using his ink, he proclaimed Punxsutawney Phil, the local groundhog, to be the one and only weather prognosticating groundhog. He issued this proclamation on Candlemas, and yes, Groundhog Day. Phil's fame spread, and newspapers from around the globe began to report his Gobbler's Knob prediction. Today you will find 20,000+ in attendance an millions watching on television or via the web."

Strange but true. If you actually read the whole article probably you are wondering what "prognosticating" means so I'll throw the answer to that in for free: "to make a forecast; prophesy."

Happy Groundhog's Day!