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.
Phil is also called: "Seer of seers", "Sage of Sages" or "Prognosticator of Pronogsticators".
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| In this photo, Phil is speaking to the president of the Groundhog Club, Bill Deeley. |
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.
