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Is It Spring Yet? . . . Ask the Groundhog

© Dorothy Hoffman

On February 2, 2000, prognosticating groundhogs emerged from their winter slumber long enough to check out their shadows and issue their annual spring forecast. Punxsutawney Phil-with more than a century of weather predicting experience-saw his shadow and called for 6 more weeks of winter. Wee Willie of Wiarton, Canada, making his debut prediction, concurred with the champ. But Sun Prairie Jimmy in Wisconsin and General Beauregard Lee of Georgia backed an early spring.

Even the top professional groundhogs don't always agree. And they can hardly be blamed for giving us a bum steer occasionally after being rudely awakened from their peaceful winter sleep. Under the best of circumstances, the average groundhogs (also known as a woodchucks or whistling hogs) tend to be reclusive loners, and their growing celebrity hasn't improved their mood.

A SHADOWY PAST

The celebration of Groundhog Day has its roots in many cultural traditions-pagan, Christian and Native American. Pennsylvania Dutch settlers brought their legends of weather-casting hedgehogs who forecast the second half of winter based on whether they saw their shadow on Candlemas day-February 2. Combining Christian and pagan beliefs, the celebration of Candlemas involved lighting candles and placing them in every window at the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox (February 2) to ward off the dark. At some point, the superstition evolved that fair weather on Candlemas Day meant 6 more weeks of winter weather and clouds and rain foreshadowed an early spring. How the hedgehogs got involved is unclear, but in the New World the groundhog was thought to be a reasonable facsimile of the European shadow reader, and Native American legend that the woodchuck was the ancient grandfather of the Lenni Lenape (original people) endowed it with a certain prestige and mystique.

Punxsutawney Phil's long tradition has bloodier roots dating back to the formation, in 1887, of the Punxsutawney Goundhog Club which met to hunt and barbecue Phil's less fortunate forebearers.

WANNABE WEATHER-CASTING WOODCHUCKS

The century-old Punxsutawney Phil dynasty is now world renowned and still the only prognosticating rodent who's starred in a major Hollywood movie based on his festival. But the weather-predicting field is now crowded with rival rodents (and a few other interloping species) seeking a place in the sun for themselves. Among Phil's more successful competitors are Sun Prairie Jimmy of Wisconsin, Tennessee Groundhog of Silver Point, Tennessee, General Beauregard Lee of Georgia, Wiarton Willie-the lone albino contender-from the frozen north, and Octorara Orphee of Quarryville, Pennsylvania.