{"id":71,"date":"2018-01-31T08:57:10","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T16:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/laa\/?p=71"},"modified":"2018-02-20T13:29:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T21:29:29","slug":"happy-groundhog-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/laa\/2018\/01\/31\/happy-groundhog-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Groundhog Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

This Friday, February 2nd, is Groundhog Day\u00a0 \u2026 but what is<\/em> this strange custom?<\/p>\n

The Delaware Indians of Pennsylvania considered groundhogs, which have long been plentiful in the Pennsylvania area, to be honorable ancestors.\u00a0 In the Delawares\u2019 legend of human creation, their ancestral forefathers began life as animals within the earth, and emerged during their evolution into human form.\u00a0 The groundhog is also known as the Woodchuck, or the marmota monax<\/u><\/em><\/a>, is a member of the squirrel family, and naturally feeds upon green plants, such as dandelion, clover, and grass.<\/p>\n

Settlers of German ancestry arrived in the same Pennsylvania area in the 18th<\/sup> century, bringing with them the tradition of \u201cCandlemas Day,\u201d which falls halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.\u00a0 Custom held that if the sun came out on that day, which fell on February 2, six weeks of cold wintery weather would follow.<\/p>\n

Over time, it became the custom of the Pennsylvania Germans to watch a badger on this day to see if the sun was bright enough to cast a shadow in front of him.\u00a0 Mixing with the local native American\u2019s reverence of the groundhog, by 1886, a groundhog was selected and dubbed Punxsutawney Phil.<\/p>\n

Today, residents of Gobbler\u2019s Knob, Pennsylvania keep the tradition alive by caring for the groundhog whose full name is “Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary.”\u00a0 His handlers, John Griffiths and Ben Hughes, state that \u201cPhil weighs 15 pounds and thrives on dog food and ice cream in his climate-controlled home at the Punxsutawney Library.\u00a0 Up on Gobbler’s Knob, Phil is placed in a heated burrow underneath a simulated tree stump on stage before being pulled out at 7:25 a.m. to make his prediction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each year, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club hosts a three-day celebration of entertainment and activities celebrating Punxsutawney Phil. The recording of Phil\u2019s predictions has been kept consistently since 1900, and according to Stormfax.com<\/a>, his predictions are correct 39% of the time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Friday, February 2nd, is Groundhog Day\u00a0 \u2026 but what is this strange custom? The Delaware Indians of Pennsylvania considered groundhogs, which have long been plentiful in the Pennsylvania area, to be honorable ancestors.\u00a0 In the Delawares\u2019 legend of human creation, their ancestral forefathers began life as animals within the earth, and emerged during their Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,12],"tags":[47,46,36,45],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-customs","category-cultural-exchange-and-adjustment","tag-february","tag-groundhog","tag-groundhogday","tag-woodchuck"],"yoast_head":"\nHappy Groundhog Day! - Kate's Au Pair in America Blog (LAA Cluster)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/laa\/2018\/01\/31\/happy-groundhog-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Happy Groundhog Day! - Kate's Au Pair in America Blog (LAA Cluster)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This Friday, February 2nd, is Groundhog Day\u00a0 \u2026 but what is this strange custom? The Delaware Indians of Pennsylvania considered groundhogs, which have long been plentiful in the Pennsylvania area, to be honorable ancestors.\u00a0 In the Delawares\u2019 legend of human creation, their ancestral forefathers began life as animals within the earth, and emerged during their Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/laa\/2018\/01\/31\/happy-groundhog-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kate's Au Pair in America Blog (LAA Cluster)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-31T16:57:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-20T21:29:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/laa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/128\/2018\/01\/groundhog3-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kate Finlay Zimmerman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kate Finlay Zimmerman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/laa\/2018\/01\/31\/happy-groundhog-day\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/laa\/2018\/01\/31\/happy-groundhog-day\/\",\"name\":\"Happy Groundhog Day! 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