By Jamie Slater
Special to 草莓传媒
WASHINGTON — Whether the Seahawks or the Broncos will take home the Super Bowl trophy is not the only prediction in store for this Sunday.
America’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, will decide for the 128th time whether there will be six more weeks of winter, if he sees his shadow, or an early spring, if he does not.
The legendary Groundhog Day casts its shadow all across the U.S., but what do we really know about him? These fun facts may shed light on the holiday and its varying nationwide celebrations. For instance:
- The tradition comes from Candlemas Day, the early European version of the holiday. Germans, Pennsylvania’s first settlers, brought the tradition with them, but chose the more common groundhog instead of the European hedgehog, to be the predictor, according to Pennsylvania’s
- The same Punxsutawney Phil, who was originally called Br’er Groundhog, has been making predictions since Feb. 2, 1887. As the group says, “Phil receives a drink of a magical punch every summer during the Annual Groundhog Picnic, which gives him seven more years of life.”
- On Sunday, after Phil emerges from his burrow on Gobbler’s Knob, he will make his prediction in Groundhogese, after which it will be translated to English. The club says he is accurate 100 percent of the time, although says this number is closer to 39 percent.
- Phil visited D.C. in 1986 to visit President Reagan, according to the club, but now his stuffed “brother” Potomac Phil predicts the area’s weather. On Sunday at 7:30 a.m., the will include live accordion music and polka dancers, and a
- In New York, makes a prediction from the Staten Island Zoo. Hopefully, current Mayor Bill de Blasio will have better luck than Mayor Bloomberg did in 2009, when
- General Beauregard Lee of Lilburn, Ga., near Atlanta, is so famous for his Feb. 2 predictions that, according to he appeared on “Today” in 1988. He even has an honorary “doctor of Weather Prognostication” from the University of Georgia and a “Doctor of Southern Groundology” from Georgia State University.
- an albino groundhog from Wiarton, Ontario, has a week-long festival in honor of his predictions. Last weekend, the Queen of the Festival was crowned at a pageant, and this Sunday’s Prediction Day will include 7 a.m. fireworks, snow shoe trials and dog sled demonstrations.
- and of the Oregon Zoo are some of Phil’s other competitors. But, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, “Punxsutawney Phil is the only true weather forecasting groundhog. The others are just imposters.”
- Due to the lack of groundhogs in Alaska, Feb. 2 is “Marmot Day” in The Last Frontier, thanks to a 2009 bill signed by then-governor Sarah Palin, according to
- At the Groundhog Day is an official school holiday, and arguably the largest celebration outside of Punxsutawney. Although they don’t have their own weather predictor, the school crowns a Groundhog King and Queen on Thursday night, holds a champagne breakfast on Friday and, on Prediction Day, sponsors a 5k run, sporting events and an all-night party.
Live coverage from the original Punxsutawney event can be found Sunday morning .
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