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In the time period between winter solstice and summer solstice, 2 February, many different celebrations have been created. It all began with a pagan festival known as imbolic. Later on, Christians developed their own celebration. A feast known as Candlemas.

Candlemas commemorated the presentation of Jesus at the holy temple in Jerusalem. Some of these Christian’s believed if the day were sunny, there would be forty more days of winter.

Eventually the Germans made a variant of the celebration, adding a legend with it. The legend said if badgers or other small critters saw their shadow, then that meant it was a sunny day, therefore, the winter would continue a while longer.

The legend and customs were continued even after Germans immigrated to Pennsylvania. They chose the groundhog, also known as woodchucks, to be the animal that determines whether summer is near, or winter will come to an end.

Clymer Freas, the city editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper and part of the Groundhog Club, has been credited with naming the day. This was the first Groundhog Day, and was celebrated in Gobbler’s Knob, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on 2 February 1887.

The name of one of the groundhogs is Punxsutawney Phil.

“When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” Matthew 16:2-3