Since 1886, Groundhog Day has been a holiday for people to celebrate all across the world. The first time the Groundhog Day celebration appeared in a local newspaper was on February 2nd, 1886. If you would like to learn more about the history of Groundhog Day, read on!
Groundhog Day has been a yearly tradition by “The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club” since 1887, A year after Groundhog Day appeared in a local newspaper for the first time. It was such a big hit that the following year (1887) marked the first year that Groundhog Day was held at Gobbler’s Knob. Every year since then, it has been held at Gobbler’s Knob. The people who are in “The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club” are known as the “Inner Circle”. These people have to wear black top hats and conduct “The Groundhog Day” celebration by following the Pennsylvania Dutch Dialect. They also supposedly speak “Groundhogese” to communicate with Phil to truly know if he saw his shadow or not.
Another fun fact about Groundhog Day is that every year, more and more people attend the live Groundhog Day celebration at Gobbler’s Knob. Approximately 30,000 people attended this year’s Groundhog Day in person. They braved sub-zero temps just to get a glimpse of Punxsutawney Phil. This year’s Groundhog Day marked its 140th anniversary of Groundhog Day. That’s right, Groundhog Day has been around for 140 years. It’s almost been around half as long as the United States has been!
Something else to know about Groundhog Day is that this year marks the fifth time in 6 years that Punxsutawney Phil has predicted 6 more weeks of winter over an early spring. When Punxsutawney Phil is not at Gobbler’s Knob on Groundhog Day, he lives at the Punxsutawney Librarywhere you can go visit him without the crowd of Groundhog Day. This reserved room in the library is called Phil’s Burrow, where you can go up close and look at him through a window, either outside or inside the library!
Nonetheless, “Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania” also has some not-so-great things about its past. For example, they used to not only rely on groundhogs to provide them with weather information, but also they used them as food. That’s right! People back in 1887 used to eat groundhogs. Another fun fact about Groundhog Day is that we do not know exactly how many Groundhogs have been used for the Groundhog Day celebrations over the years because “The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club” has not released that information to the public. What we can infer from our own knowledge is that Groundhogs can live up to 6 years out in the wild, but when they are cared for by humans, they can live up to 10 to 15 years. That could mean that over the last 140 years, there have been 10 or more Groundhogs named Punxsutawney Phil that have predicted the weather and been to Gobbler’s Knob on Groundhog Day.
https://www.groundhog.org/groundhog-day/what-is-groundhog-day/
https://www.history.com/articles/groundhog-day-history-and-facts
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/where-does-punxsutawney-phil-live/
https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/how-many-punxsutawney-phils/
https://a-z-animals.com/animals/groundhog/how-long-do-groundhogs-live/
https://www.history.com/articles/groundhog-was-once-on-punxsutawneys-menu
