8 hours Ago By [email protected] (Metroland Staff)
Groundhog Day is on Sunday, Feb. 2. The annual event in Canada and the United States is based on a folklore that if a groundhog comes out of its burrow and sees its shadow, winter will go on for another six weeks; but if the groundhog doesn’t see its shadow, spring will arrive early.
The Groundhog Day tradition is said to have been started by the Pennsylvania Dutch community in Punxsutawney, PA. in 1887. However, the tradition is based on an older Christian celebration of Candlemas.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, there was a belief during the Middle Ages that animals such as the badger or the bear interrupted their hibernation on Feb. 2, the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. If it was sunny that day and the animal saw its shadow, there would be six more weeks of winter weather.
If it was cloudy that day, it was a sign that the following weeks would be mild and there would be an early spring. In Pennsylvania, the immigrant community substituted the groundhog for the badger and Punxsutawney Phil was born, predicting the weather since 1887. In southern Ontario, our most famous groundhog is Wiarton Willie.
According to the Bruce Peninsula tourism page, this groundhog began predicting the weather in 1957, when a local man named Mac McKenzie, who had a reputation as a joker, decided Wiarton could use some livening up in the winter. His friends from the Toronto area ignored his invitation to the Groundhog Day event, but a reporter and photographer from the Toronto Daily Star, Frank Teskey, went. The reporter was directed to the Arlington Hotel, where he found McKenzie having drinks with some friends.
Teskey realized there was no event, but he knew he couldn’t go back to Toronto without a story. He joined McKenzie’s party and the next day the group went outside, dug a little hole, found something that looked like a groundhog, a lady’s white fur hat, and threw it in the hole and took a photo. That’s how it began.
The Wiarton Willie 2025 Festival and Prediction Morning happens Sunday, Feb. 2 and is put on by the Town of South Bruce Peninsula. The event happens at 370 William St.
, the location of the community’s future town hall. The Wiarton visitor centre, the home of Wiarton Willie and the Wiarton Willie statue are nearby. Schedule of events: More information on the event is available at southbrucepeninsula.
com . There are other Groundhog Day celebrations across Canada. Another famous Canadian groundhog is Shubenacadie Sam in Nova Scotia, who has been predicting the weather since 1987.
Closer to home here in Ontario, there is the groundhog named Harvey, who predicts the weather at Heaven’s Wildlife Rescue Rehabilitation & Education Centre in Lambton County. And in Val-d’Espoir, Que., there’s Fred la marmotte.
Here’s what the furry oracles predicted in 2024:.
