Since today is Groundhog Day, I was curious how this tradition began.
I learned that Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas, when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be.
Germans expanded on this concept by selecting an animal, the groundhog, as a means of predicting weather.
Why?
I have NO idea.
It seems the tradition came to North America in 1887, when locals in a Pennsylvania town called Punxsutawney went to a nearby area that had a lot of groundhogs. For whatever reason, they named one Phil and that was the beginning of the first official Groundhog Day in the US
