It spawned a cheesy movie and crowds gather for it every year, but Groundhog Day is more about fun than fact, says a University of Alberta expert.
It spawned a cheesy movie and crowds gather for it every year, but Groundhog Day is more about fun than fact, says a University of Alberta expert.
Brought by German immigrants to Pennsylvania, the popular weather-predicting tradition stems from the superstition that if a hibernating groundhog emerging from its burrow on Feb. 2 sees a shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den and winter will last another six weeks. If it can’t see its shadow because of cloudiness, spring will come early.
“Although the first groundhog in that area of Pennsylvania does emerge around February 2 each year, any relation between seeing a shadow or not and future weather is pure myth,” said Jan Murie, a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Science.
In fact, not much is really known about what causes groundhogs—the chunky relatives of squirrels and marmots—to come out of hibernation when they do, Murie said.
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