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According to
legend, if Phil sees his shadow on Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, the
cold weather will not loosen its grip on North America for six
weeks. But if the morning is cloudy and no shadow appears,
spring-like weather is supposedly around the corner.
The event, which typically brings out 30,000 revelers to the
small, west-central Pennsylvania town, has become a television
staple at the beginning of one of the coldest months of the year
in the U.S. Northeast. In addition to the celebrated rodent, the
pageant features an entourage of city elders in old-fashioned
dress and top hats, presiding over the festivities.
The organizer, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, is touting the
2016 event as "Phil's 130th prognostication," although
technically it is not the same groundhog every year but one
picked to represent the character.
Club spokeswoman Katie Donald said 1886 was the first year that
the club trekked to Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney and the
groundhog delivered a weather forecast. Media coverage of the
event started the following year, she said.
"We go by the first trek, 1886," Donald said.
The event's website, Groundhog.org, notes that "groundhogs are
one of the few animals that really hibernate. Hibernation is not
just a deep sleep. It is actually a deep coma."
This year's Phil, however, has not whiled away the winter
underground like most of his species, also known as woodchucks.
Instead, Phil and his handlers from the Punxsutawney Groundhog
Club Inner Circle made cameo appearances on Jan. 23 at
Pittsburgh's Penn Brewery for the unveiling of its "Punxsutawney
Philsner" draft beer and at a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game.
While he is still the most famous of the weather-forecasting
groundhogs, Phil has had to compete a host of imitators in
recent years. New York City, for example, has a groundhog of its
own that has generated more than its share of controversy.
The 2009 groundhog bit the hand of then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg
during the annual Feb. 2 ceremony.
Five years after that, the groundhog was the injured party, when
a groundhog named Charlotte fell hard to the ground after she
wriggled out of the grasp of Mayor Bill de Blasio. The animal
died of internal injuries a week later.
This year de Blasio will skip the event. Instead he is traveling
to Iowa to campaign for Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton ahead of the state's Feb. 1 nominating caucuses.
He will not return to New York until Tuesday evening, his office
said, long after the groundhog is out of harm's way.
(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago and Barbara Goldberg
in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty and Frances Kerry)
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