Punxsutawney Phil Comes Out Of His Hole, But For What?
It all started on a cold February day in 1887, on a small hill called Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney PA., 65 miles north of Pittsburgh. The story goes that if the groundhog sees his shadow when it emerges from its hole it means six more weeks of winter. Well, Phil, where the hell has winter been in the first place?
It is all based on a German superstition that claims if a hibernating animal casts its shadow on Groundhog Day, or the Christian holiday of Candlemas, winter will last another six weeks. If the animal does not see a shadow spring will come early.
The kicker here is that all of Phil’s predictions are rigged, so he’s never wrong. Phil should try playing the lottery.
The Inner Circle, who wears top hats and tuxedos and reads Phil’s prediction, decides ahead of time what the prediction will be. Over the years, Phil has seen his shadow over 100 times and only seen nothing 16 times.
Mike Johnson, Vice President of the Inner Circle stated, recently spoke to Time.com about the event. As he stated, “He’s never been wrong.” Phil is “incapable of error.” Due to the fact that he is never specific where winter will last or end, he will always have the right answer someplace.
The ceremony started over a hundred years ago with only a few locals gathering and slowly grew into a decent crowd of a few thousand through the years.
In 1993, the comedy classic Groundhog Day, staring Bill Murray, put the spotlight on this town and the event. This year there were close to 15,000 people ready to watch Phil’s prediction.
Onlookers began to gather at dawn for the 7:30AM ceremony. The temperature in past years has averaged about 17 degrees; fortunately for this year’s attendees, the temperature sat just above freezing at a toasty 33 degrees.
So, what did Phil say? Like most of his other years, he did indeed see his shadow. Does that mean another six weeks of winter? Normally I would be depressed by this notion, having to suffer through another month and a half of bitter freezing winds and ice on my windshield.
However, if winter’s current state is any prediction of the next six weeks, I’ll take it. This year’s winter has seen less than a foot of snow in many northeast cities, and days have ranged from 50 to 60 degrees at some points.
Phil, I would like to thank you for all your expert predictions, but this year you don’t scare me. I’ll take six more weeks of this kind of winter any time. Hopefully things go better next winter, but climate change is a powerful adversary.
