Punxsutawney Phil has been making weather predictions in Pennsylvania since the late 1800s, but the tradition dates back a lot farther.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 It's here in this small Pennsylvania town where people get together to await a prediction
00:08 of future weather.
00:09 He's a prognosticator of all prognosticators.
00:12 His name is Punxsutawney Phil.
00:16 They claim he's never been wrong, so doubt him if you will.
00:20 If he sees his shadow, six more weeks of winter is the answer.
00:24 But if he doesn't, springtime weather could come faster.
00:27 This tradition started in Germany back in the 1800s when calamus was practiced, an ancient
00:33 Christian tradition where clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter.
00:37 The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be.
00:41 The Germans then expanded on this concept by selecting an animal, the hedgehog, as a
00:45 means of predicting weather.
00:47 As the tradition made its way to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania switched to
00:51 ground hogs, which were plentiful in the Keystone State.
00:55 The town of Punxsutawney, located 80 miles north of Pittsburgh, became the home of this
01:00 custom.
01:01 Well the first official reports of groundhog day in Punxsutawney were 1886, 1887, somewhere
01:06 around there.
01:08 That's 135 at least years that Phil has been in Punxsutawney giving his predictions.
01:15 And it has been the same Phil this entire time.
01:18 He actually, every fall, receives the elixir of life at our annual groundhog picnic.
01:24 And that's a secret potion that, you know, recipe's been handed down from groundhog handler
01:28 to groundhog handler.
01:30 And with every sip he gets seven more years of longevity.
01:33 So as another year comes and we all grow old, we await a prediction of temperatures we hope
01:39 to be warm instead of cold.
01:41 (audience laughing)