Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil explained: NPR

It shares its name with a classic movie where a single day is stuck at repetition – but Groundhog Day is a day like no other. This is especially true for a small town in Pennsylvania, where celebrity Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil delivers its annual weather prediction on February 2nd to thousands of people personally and millions more online.

The event takes place at Gobbler’s knot, an open hillside in the forest approx. 2 miles from the city of Punxsutawney. In a tradition dating from the 1880s, if Phil sees his shadow, it is a character winter, winter will last six more weeks. If he does not, an early spring is on the way. There are also other earth dogs that make predictions around the country. (Science -based approaches to weather are also available.

Here is a quick guide to the famous festival in Punxsutawney, Pa.

Phil has its own ‘inner circle’

The event is led by Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s inner circle. The group has existed almost as long as tradition and currently consists of 15 men living in the small town about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. They have day job, but in Groundhog mode they wear top hats and tuxedo and use nicknames like “Moonshine” and “Frostbite.” They also have a secret handbook.

The President of the Inner Circle is Tom Dunkel, whose father also spent decades in the group (it is a lifetime obligation). For him, Groundhog Day and Phil were never far away.

“Phil would be by my Thanksgiving -Mature and running around the floor,” Dunkel says.

At Groundhog Day, Dunkel uses the same sugar cane that his father once held to wake Phil from his hole. The famous Groundhog’s trades are AJ “Rainmaker” Dereume. Like Dunkel, his father was also in the inner circle.

“You have to have the genet, we say – you have to have the groundhog – gene,” says Dereume. “We were both born with it.”

Phil is allegedly immortal

When Phil sits on a stump to predict the weather, you see the original animal, not a replacement, according to Inner Circle Lore.

“Always remember that it is first and foremost Groundhog Day – not Groundhogs – for a reason,” says Derume.

“There is only one. And there is only one ever one,” is obscure Agree. “There’s only been a Punxsutawney Phil. Our phil is like, probably 139 years old.” (Under normal circumstances, Groundhogs in captivity are allegedly Up to 14 years.)

Asked to explain, Dunkel says that Phil is drinking a secret interwaxing called “Life in the club’s summer piknik.

“Each sip gives him seven years of life,” he says.

Many Groundhog Day visitors also make their share of sipping. There is an official Groundhog Ball, a Banet and Reception, and Restaurants stay open late on Groundhog Day Eve – but no alcohol is allowed by Gobbler’s dial.

The hit film brought huge crowds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oybsrbqogpy

Punxsutawney’s Groundhog -Day gained steadily popularity before the named film came out in 1993, says Dereume.

In the film, Bill Murray, who played TV -Weatherman Phil to Andie Macdowell’s producer Rita, took the audience through a Groundhog day in Punxsutawney, who was stuck at repeat.

The movie was Shot mostly in Woodstock, ill.But for Punxsutawney, Pa., “Groundhog Day was really out for the races at the time,” says Dereume.

The event exploded, he says, from crowds of 3,000 to 5,000 people to 30,000 to 40,000 – a massive influx for Punxsutawney, where US Census Bureau shows a population of approx. 5,600.

Organizers adapted to huge crowds, and they noticed something weird at Gobbler’s dial: Visitors continued to see the small scene in a field, regardless of the date.

“We thought, ‘Well, Geez, people come all year round,” says Dunkel, the inner circle president, asking the group to add facilities as a welcome center that is open all year.

Punxsutawney Phil was famous before the movie

“Phil met two presidents,” Dunkel says. “He went to the White House to meet Ronald Reagan and he has met Jimmy Carter.”

On the other 364 days of the year, admirers look for Phil on Gobbler’s dial and at special events.

“We are probably doing six or seven parades a year,” Dunkel says. “We have what is called a Phil-Mobile”-a bus playing Groundhog-centered music, with a platform game for Phil.

People come far away, for many reasons

Many visitors come to Punxsutawney’s groundhog day for fun or because it’s on their bucket list. But some come for several personal reasons.

While the movie is a comedy, Groundhog Day “Many of the reasons people changed,” Dunkel says. “You would be surprised.”

He notes that the story portrays a blurry man struggling to break free from a scam of bad habits and impulses.

“We get a lot of people coming to Groundhog Day for a new start and to start over” because of what they got out of the movie, Dunkel says. “And their stories are pretty cool to listen to.”

Visitors find an event with modest costs. It is free to participate in the large collection of Gobbler’s dial, although many spectators choose to pay $ 5 for a bus trip instead of handling parking. Hotels in the area sold out; People who need rest can pay $ 10 to nap in a social center.

Why the top hats?

In the 1950s, the Groundhog club decided that their honor and respect for Phil demanded that they carry top hats and tuxedos, says Dereume, the forecasting rodent’s trades. If you were to meet the king or queen of England, he adds, “You would definitely do the same.”

But there was a crib for top hats a few years ago after the club’s long -standing supplier in the United States went out of service. They found a new top hate in England – but “then Queen Elizabeth died, and suddenly there was a top hat deficiency,” Dunkel says.

The hats are not cheap and a free is the only perk you get to participate in the inner circle, says Dereume.

It’s not (all) hokum

Groundhog Day rituals are a unique blend of formality and folk. When otherwise, grown men bend in smart dresses their ears against a tree chuck – which earth dogs are also known – as thousands look at?

But the timing has been important for centuries when old Celts and then Christians celebrated the halfway between winter solar and spring Equinox.

Our modern Groundhog -Day evolved from the Christian holiday lightswhich in turn came from the Celtic festival in Imbolc. Like Lunar New Year, the traditions celebrate the return of the sun and spring.

The observations also brought about a question: When does winter end? When Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants thought about it, they remembered the German practice of consulting a European badger for weather forecasts – and in North America they pressed a soil hut for service.

Phil has a tendency to bet in winter

Historically, historically, Phil’s predictions Lean strongly against an extended winter. It has been his expected 108 times compared to 21 to an early spring since his prognosis was registered in 1887 (there are no items for 10 years). This tendency to anticipate more cold helps to explain why he has only been exactly about 35% of the time, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Neither Doppler -Radar nor annoying statistics seem to be interested in Phil’s weather forecasts. Experts still say that if you really want to predict the end of winter, you may feel better about turning a coin.

But where is the fun of it?