The history of Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Bill (the most famous groundhog in the world)

Phil is a groundhog or woodchuck (a rodent that
belongs to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots).
This animal lives in a town called Punxsutawney in the state of Pennsylvania, in the norh-east of the United States.

On Phil´s day, February 2nd, there is a ceremony, early in the morning, that begins before the sunrise, in a special location called "Gobbler´s Knob" where Phil has his burrow with his name on the little door.  According to the folklore, Phil emerges from his home and lots of journalists, cameramen, weather forecasters and people from all over the country are waiting to see if Phil will see his shadow. Remember, if it´s cloudy and he doesn´t see his shadow, he will leave the burrow and we can expect an early Spring. But if it is sunny and the groundhog sees his shadow, he will return to his burrow and we can expect six more weeks of Winter. When Phil has made his decisión, legend says he speaks to the president of the Groundhog Club in a secret language called "Groundhogese"

                                   

                                                                                

During the rest of the year, Phil lives in the Punxsutawney library with his wife Phyllis.

Phil has been sharing his weather predictions for more than 120 years. This is impossible because groundhogs only can live about 10 years in captivity, so people say there have been many Phils over the years.

However, Phil´s fans claim there has only been one Phil. What is the secret? Following the legend, each summer Phil drinks a sip of a special mystery groundhog punch that lengthens his life for 7 years.


In this photo, Phil is speaking to the president of the Groundhog Club, Bill Deeley.

 

Phil is also called: "Seer of seers", "Sage of Sages" or "Prognosticator of Pronogsticators".

 

To finish we´ll say that the word "woodchuck", the other expression to name groundhogs, has nothing to do with Wood or chuck. It comes from the alteration of the words "otchock" or "wejak" that mean groundhog in Algonquian (American Indian languages). So there is only a phonetic similarity.



More groundhogs predicting the weather

Although Punxsutawney Bill is the most famous weather forecaster groundhog, there are other woodchucks that do the same in different places in the United States and in Canada.
Now, you can know them:

- Balzac Billy: He is also known as the Prairie Prognosticator. He lives in Balzac, Alberta in Canada. Unlike other Groundhog Day mascots, Balzac  Billy is not a real groundhog but a man in a costume.











- Buckeye Chuck: He lives in Marion, Ohio. In 1979 the Ohio General Assambly declared him as "the oficial State Groundhog.

- General Beauregard Lee: He resides at the Yellow River Game Ranch in Lilburn, Georgia. He has received honorary doctorates in some universities in Georgia such as "Doctor of Weather Prognostication" or "Doctor of Southern Groundology", He lives in a White-columned Southern mansión with an architectural wáter fountain, a postal box, a granite monument... He also has got satellite dish, a laptop computer and even a wine cellar to take a sip from time to time.












- Shubenacadie Sam: This is another Canadian groundhog. He lives in the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park in the town of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. He makes the first Groundhog Day prediction in North America.

- Smith Lake Jake: He lives at the Birmingham Zoo in Birmingham, Alabama. He is known for wearing a hat with his name. Unlike other forecasting woodchucks, Jake is not an early riser and on February 2nd he doesn´t appear until about 10 a.m.














- Staten Island Chuck: This groundhog lives at the Staten Island Zoo in New York City. The ceremony of predicting the weather is often attended an officiated by the Mayor of New York City. In 2009 Chuck bit Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Mayor did not attend the ceremony for five years and he did not explain why. Because of the Mayor incident , Chuck was replaced by his granddaughter, Charlotte, for the first ceremony of new Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014. But unfortunatly, de Blasio dropped the groundhog during his first ceremony and 7 days later, on February 9th, Charlotte died. In 2015, Chuck´s daughter replaced the others. This female "Staten Island Chuck" walked out of a hutch that an elevator had lifted onto the stage of a portable Plexiglass habitat, while de Blasio watched from six feet away. Although the original Chuck (as far as it is known) is still alive, he has been permanently retired out of fear he may bite again.

- Sir Walter Wally: He lives in Raleigh, the capital of the State of North Carolina, at the Museum of Natural Sciences, where the ceremony takes place. He was rescued after an encounter with a vehicle and now he can´t be released into the wild because he would not survive.

- Wiarton Willie: He lives in the town of Wiarton, in the South Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada. According to his website, he was born precisely on the 45th parallel, midway point between the Equator and the North Pole. Willie' predictive powers are attributed to this fact.People around say that he has an accuracy in his prognostications around 90% of the time.
He has got a statue in his town.
And to finish, a curious thing: Wiarton is the only albino groundhog in the list of the weather forecasters woodchucks

I´m a little groundhog...song



Go to sleep groundhog