Groundhog Day

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Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney , 2005

Groundhog Day ( "Groundhog Day," Pennsylvania Dutch Grundsaudaag ) is a cultural event that every year on February 2 at several locations in the United States and Canada is committed. In order to be able to provide a weather forecast for the further course of winter, woodchucks ( Marmota monax ) are lured out of their burrow for the first time in the year, both publicly and sometimes at public festivals . When the animal "sees its shadow", that is, when the sun is shining, winter should last another six weeks.

history

In the church year , the feast of the Presentation of the Lord falls on February 2nd , popularly known as the Candlemas . As a so-called Lost Day , the festival is associated with a variety of customs related to light and the increasing length of the days. Numerous farmer rules relate to the expected weather, for example in collections of rules for weather forecasting from the badger or the bear :

  • "The badger sundays in the week of candlesticks, he goes back to Loche for four weeks"
  • "If the badger stays in the hole for light measurement, the cold will come later".
  • "When the bear sees its shadow on Candlemas, it crawls back into the cave for forty days".

In 1859 it is explained for Westphalia :

  • "If the badger sees its shadow at Maria Lichtmeessen, between 11 am and 12 noon, it has to stay in its den for another four weeks."

Among the German-speaking immigrants in Pennsylvania, where there are no badgers, a similar hibernator became the object of such peasant rules: the common, diurnal and easily observed woodchuck.

Customs in Pennsylvania

The oldest evidence for Pennsylvania can be found in the Pennsylvania Dutch Folklore Center . On February 4, 1841, James Morris, a shopkeeper in Morgantown, Berks County, Pennsylvania, wrote in his diary:

“Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate. "

“Last Tuesday, February 2nd, was Candlemas, the day on which, according to the Germans, the woodchuck peeked out from its winter quarters. When it sees its shadow, it disappears into its cave for the next six weeks to sleep, but if the day is cloudy it stays outside because the weather will be moderate. "

The longest tradition is in Punxsutawney , Pennsylvania . The local newspaper Spirit called February 2, 1886 Groundhog Day, "although the creature did not see its shadow before this issue went to press." On February 2, 1887, Groundhog Day was celebrated with woodchuck eating together. The further development of the custom is linked to the name of the longtime editor of the Spirit Clymer H. Freas (1867–1942), who invented the secret language "Groundhogese" for communication with animals, selected Gobbler's Knob as the location of the annual forecast and annually in the local newspaper reported about it. In his obituary notice in Spirit of October 22, 1942, he is named "father of the Punxsutawney concept as a woodchuck center". Punxsutawney and Woodchuck Day became internationally known in 1993 through the movie And Groundhog Day (original title: Groundhog Day ) with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell in the leading roles. The Punxsutawney event currently attracts tens of thousands of visitors annually.

The Slumbering Groundhog Lodge , founded by George W. Hensel Jr. in Quarryville , Lancaster County as a men's association , has been celebrating Groundhog Day since 1908.

In Pennsylvania Dutch , the woodchuck is called "Grundsau" or "Grundsow" in English-German orthography. With the Pennsylvania Germans, male associations, the "Grundsow Lodges" (also Groundhog Lodges ), have been cultivating the customs since 1934 with annual banquets at which the vernacular is also cultivated. In addition to the Groundhog Lodges, there are also banquets often attended by the same group of people, which women can also attend and which also serve to cultivate language with speeches and theater. Customs in other places, in the entire range of the woodchuck and beyond, are more recent and follow on from the popularity of the older events.

Well-known woodchucks

Woodchuck

The best-known animals are the woodchuck from Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania, known as "Punxsutawney Phil" . The celebrations there are also the oldest and have been held since 1887. Through the film Groundhog Day (original title Groundhog Day ) "Phil" was internationally known. In total there are about two dozen marmots that are surveyed annually, e.g. B. "Balzac Billy" from the Canadian province of Alberta , "General Beauregard Lee" from Stone Mountain , Georgia , "Jimmy the Groundhog" ( Sun Prairie , Wisconsin ), "Shubenacadie Sam" (Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia ), "Staten Island Chuck" ( Staten Island (New York City), New York ) and "Wiarton Willie" (Wiarton, Ontario / Canada).

Final predictions

2015
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow (despite the cloudy sky). That means six weeks of winter.
Staten Island Chuck forecast early spring.
2017
six more weeks of winter: Punxsutawney Phil
2018
six more weeks of winter: Punxsutawney Phil
2019
early spring: Punxsutawney Phil
2020
early spring: Punxsutawney Phil

Hit rate of predictions

In a study with weather data from 13 Canadian cities over the past 30 to 40 years, the hit rate of marmots was examined. There was a 37% probability that the prediction on Groundhog Day would be correct. An opposing forecast or a normal winter is considered to be incorrect, so that the probability that can be achieved by chance is 33%. The US National Climatic Data Center uses 39% as the proportion of correct predictions since 1887, with the hit rate even being 59% over the last 20 years.

literature

  • Don Yoder: Groundhog Day. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg PA, 2003, limited preview in Google Book Search
  • Collier Rhoads: Pennsylvania German Groundhog Lodges. In: Keystone folklore quarterly, published by The Pennsylvania Folklore Society, Vol. 5, 1960, pp. 7-9. Full text in Google Book Search

Web links

Commons : Groundhog Day  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wilhelm Körte: The proverbs and proverbial sayings of the Germans. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1837, p. 551.
  2. ↑ a b Adalbert Kuhn: Legends, customs and fairy tales from Westphalia. Part 2: Customs and Fairy Tales. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1859, p. 118.
  3. ↑ a b C. H. Edmund Freiherr von Berg: Pürschgang in the thicket of hunting and forest history. Schönfeld, Dresden 1869, p. 171.
  4. ↑ Bob Berman: The Comet Under the Kitchen Table. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-593-37664-4 , p. 122.
  5. ↑ a b c Don Yoder: Groundhog Day. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg PA, 2003.
  6. ^ Jack Brubaker: Remembering Lancaster County: Stories from Pennsylvania Dutch country. History Press, Charleston, SC, 2010, ISBN 978-1-59629-863-7 , pp. 72 f.
  7. ↑ Homer Tope Rosenberger: The Pennsylvania Germans: 1891-1965 . Pennsylvania German Society, Lancaster, PA 1966, pp. 194-199, OCLC 1745108 .
  8. ^ Andreas Gardt, Bernd-Rüdiger Hüppauf: Globalization and the future of German. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-11-017918-0 , p. 236 f.
  9. ↑ Groundhog Day 2015. In: The Washington Post, last accessed on February 2, 2015.
  10. ↑ Groundhog Day 2015. In: SILive.com, last accessed on February 2, 2015 (English).
  11. ↑ Groundhog Day 2018: Punxsutawney Phil predicts 6 more weeks of winter . In: USA TODAY . ( usatoday.com [accessed February 2, 2018]).
  12. ↑ Groundhog Day Schedule 2019
  13. ↑ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette February 2, 2020 (English)
  14. ^ Groundhog Day. In: The Canadian Encyclopedia, accessed September 4, 2010.
  15. ^ Groundhog Day. In: Pet Love Shack, accessed September 4, 2010.