The predictions of the day of Groundhog on the arrival of spring put the spotlight on PunxSutawney Phil every February 2, but celebrating the median point between the shortest and darkest of the year and the spring equinox has roots former in European agricultural life.
Punxsutawney Phil is far from the only marmot whose human managers make annual announcements to find out if they have seen their own shadows and predict six weeks of winter or early spring.
The date divides not only the calendar between the winter solstice and the spring equinox – It is also a time of year which appears in the Celtic calendar and the Christian feast of candles.
And in the east and the center of Pennsylvania, where the inhabitants of German origin have watched the annual emergence of the Hibernation Marmotte for centuries, there is a tradition of clubs and celebrations which are independent of Phil.
Some reject the Punxsutawney event as A rival unworthy of their own festivitiesWhich, according to them, provide more precise weather forecasts. There have been predictive Marks over time in at least 28 American states and Canadian provinces, and less official celebrations from afar.
One thing is not: a serious matter.
“We know it’s silly; We know it’s fun, “said Marcy Galando, executive director of Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. “We want people to come here with a sense of humor.”
Here are some things to know about the holidays:
What are the origins of the marmot day?
The Celtic across Europe marked the four days halfway between the winter solstice, the spring equinox, the summer solstice and the fall equinox. What the Celts called Imbolc are also there when Christians celebrate the candles, timed in Joseph and Mary the presentation of Jesus to the Temple of Jerusalem.
Ancient people observed the sun, stars and animal behavior to guide agricultural practices and other decisions, and the practice of looking at the emergence of an animal from winter hibernation to the forecast of time has roots in a tradition similar German involving badgers or bears. The Pennsylvania Germans apparently substituted the groundhog, endemic to the Eastern United States and the Midwest.
Historians found a reference in a newspaper of 1841 to the weather forecast of the marmot in early February among the families of German origin in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, according to the late Don Yoder, professor of Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania whose 2003 book on Groundhog Day explored the Celtic connection.
Yoder concluded that the festival has roots in “the old, undoubtedly prehistoric, the meteorological tradition”.
Why is he celebrated in Punxsutawney?
The Germans of Pennsylvania settled in the region, and in the late 1880s, they began to celebrate the holidays in picnic, hunting and eating marvages.
Members of PunxSutawney Groundhog Club, organized in 1899, took care of Phil and his Woodchuck family in a personalized space alongside the Punxsutawney commemorative library, where there is a window with a view of the creature’s burrow.
The PunxSutawney Marmot is predictions, but it is not always predictable. The designated marmot emerged before sunrise in 1929 and was not released before the end of the afternoon in 1941.
Bill Murray’s film in 1993, “Groundhog Day”, provoked such an resurgence of interest that two years after its release, the event organizers expressed their concern about the crowd Rowdy Brink all night, people climbing to trees and others stripping their underwear. In 1998, a marmot club leader with a costume of $ 4,000 at the Marmotte said that he had been attacked by half a dozen young men.
Alcohol is now prohibited at the Gobbler button, Phil’s Tache of Phil about 80 miles (123 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh.
Has Phil has a competition?
The first festivities of PunxSutawney were followed in 1907 by people from Quartryville, an agricultural area of the County of Lancaster in the southeast corner of Pennsylvania. The approximately 240 members of the installation of sleeping groundwater report winter forecasts of Octoraro Orphie, or at least via its well -preserved remains.
Whistle the pigs on the menu?
The marmot is a member of the Squirrel family and linked to darling and meadow dogs. He is also known as Woodchuck, a whistle pig – or in the language of Pennsylvania Dutch, a language with German roots, a “grundsau”.
Marmots are herbivores which are themselves edible for humans, although they are not widely consumed. Their lifespan in nature is generally two or three years.
Some cooks advise marvels are better taken when they are young and after the clover, because a clover diet is supposed to improve the taste of meat.
When did clubs and lodges reach?
From the 1930s, the Lodges de Marmotte opened its doors in eastern Pennsylvania. They were social clubs with similarities with Freemasonry.
Intended to preserve the German culture and traditions of Pennsylvania, the clubs were sometimes amended those who were surprised talking differently about their Dutch language in Pennsylvania during the meetings. They were traditionally fully male groups and several of the clubs remain active.
They all share the unifying characteristic of the meteorological prognosis for a groundhog, according to William W. Don, professor of anthropology at the University of Kutztown and author of “Serial Nonsense”, a book on lodges and other efforts to preserve heritage German.
“I think it is only one of those traditional rituals in which people like to participate, which perhaps distance them from modern life for 15 minutes,” said Giving.
How often Phil does it correctly?
Certain well -intentioned efforts have sought to determine the precision of Phil, but what “six weeks of winter” means is questionable. The affirmations that a groundhog or not saw its shadow – and that it is able to communicate this to a human – are also a fair territory for skeptics and humor reached.
According to all testimonies, Phil predicts more winter much more often than it predicts in early spring.
The marmots are mainly lonely creatures that are starting to emerge in the middle of winter to find a companion. The science behind it can make specific weather forecasts is at best problematic.
Among the skeptics are the national centers for environmental information, within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The government agency Compare Phil’s record With American national temperatures to conclude that it is barely perfect.
