Every year, a group of people pick up a groundhog in Pennsylvania, let him look for his shadow and, whether he does or not, determine how much longer winter will last. That’s right, Groundhog Day is here—again—and Punxsutawney Phil is about to (maybe) ruin our Friday. The tradition goes: If Phil comes out of his burrow in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania—dubbed Gobbler’s Knob—and sees his shadow, we get six more weeks of winter. Otherwise, we get an early spring. (Spring actually begins on March 20 this year, which is six and a half weeks away. But who’s counting?) Lore suggests this odd gathering at Gobbler’s Knob began in 1887 when German immigrants modified traditions from their homeland. (The first recorded mention of a Groundhog Day celebration, minus Gobbler’s Knob, came in 1886 in The Punxsutawney Spirit.) But according to NJ.com, the real architect of Groundhog Day was an American newspaper editor. Clymer Freas ran The Punxsutawney Spirit in 1887 and dubbed Phil the official groundhog forecaster in the United States. Freas kept running stories about the rodent until the idea spread—think of it as an early viral story—and the designation stuck. More than a century later, Groundhog Day has taken on a… Read full this story
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Groundhog Day 2018: Facts, Quotes, History And Everything Else You Need to Know About Punxsutawney Phil's Prediction have 400 words, post on www.newsweek.com at February 2, 2018. This is cached page on CuBird. If you want remove this page, please contact us.