BY Madison Mohr
LifeAtStart.com Reporter
On Groundhog Day we let a 12 pound rodent predict the weather. If it sees its shadow we get 6 more weeks of winter; if there’s no shadow then spring comes early. I don’t know about you but I find this ridiculous. How can a rodent suddenly become a meteorologist?
The holiday comes from an ancient Christian tradition, Candlemas Day. This day marked the midpoint of winter. They bless beeswax candles and burn them in the windows. If the sun cast a shadow there would be more winter coming; no shadow, winter was ending soon. German settlers continued this tradition with rodents instead of candles.
The first Groundhog Day was in 1887, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. A newspaper editor, and member of the Groundhog Club, stated that “Phil, Punxsutawney’s groundhog, was America’s only true weather-forecasting groundhog.”People gathered at Globber’s Knob for the groundhog. Afterwards, the Groundhog Club hosted a groundhog hunt, and picnic, which had a variety of groundhog dishes to serve to everyone. Today, the people still gather for the picnic but there’s no groundhog on the menu.