And let's face it, turkeys aren't exactly dancing in the streets when they're big day arrives, since they tend to be more on the "giving" side of Thanksgiving than the "thanking" part. Strangely, party animals that they are, most woodchucks prefer to sleep right through their own big day. And those whose official prognosticating duties force them above ground in the dead of winter are probably feeling a tad grumpy and out of sorts at the disruption of their seasonal snooze-in.
So, if the typical woodchuck is not likely to be seeing his shadow on February 2, except in his dreams, why have the hibernating rodents become the most trusted weather-predicting creatures on the planet? Could it simply have been a case of mistaken identity? Digging down to the source of the Groundhog Day tradition, we find the ancient Celtic celebration of Candlemas Day. According to Celtic tradition, "If Candlemas Day is bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the year." No mention here of groundhogs seeing their shadow - not surprising since there were no groundhogs in the ancient British Isles. But it's safe to say if there had been, and they weren't safely tucked away in their burrow sleeping out the winter, they might very well see their shadows on a "bright and clear" day.
Old World hedgehogs had a paw or two in the weather-predicting business, it seems, and European emigrants to the New World, finding no hedgehogs here may simply have turned to the closest thing they could find - groundhogs.
We don't know exactly who the first prognosticating woodchuck was or when he made his first startlingly accurate prediction, but the most famous groundhog of all time - with his own Club, hordes of fans, and a Hollywood movie immortalizing his work - Punxsutawney Phil, is on record as making his first prediction in 1887. Phil is not without rivals, of course. "Official" groundhogs have been popping up from coast to coast including Dunkirk Dave in Dunkirk, New York, Willie Wiarton in Canada, Pee Wee in Vermont, and other pretenders in Ohio, Tennessee, and many other states.
Still the majority of groundhogs prefer their traditional quiet lifestyle of gorging on tasty grasses, clover, dandelion greens, and succulent greens until they've packed on enough excess poundage to get them through the cold dark winter, then retiring to their skillfully engineered burrows to nap until around mid- February or March.
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