On Feb. 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the groundhog emerged from hibernation and didn’t see his shadow, according to weather.com, which means warm weather is just around the corner.
According to delawwareonline.com, if the groundhog sees its shadow, it will get scared and go back into hibernation for another six weeks. If it doesn’t see its shadow, that means spring will be coming soon.
Although the students have faith in this groundhog, he has only a 39 percent accuracy rate, according to foxweather.com.
Groundhog Day roots from the ancient Christian tradition of “Candlemas,” “when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter,” according to history.com.
History.com continues to state that the candles would represent how long and cold the winter might be, and that Germans expanded on this concept by selecting an animal as a means of predicting the weather. “Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs.”
The animal rights group PETA is fighting to get Punxsutawney Phil replaced by a golden coin, according to triblive.com. PETA quotes “groundhogs can’t make heads or tails of the weather forecast, and shouldn’t be jostled around by large members of a different species and thrust in front of noisy crowds for a photo op.”
According to a poll recently done on Instagram, most students would prefer to keep Punxsatawney Phil over a golden coin. Senior Reese Carroll asks, “why would they change a tradition?”
He then continues to say, “if there is nothing wrong, why would they try to change it? It’s not like people are hurting this animal or doing anything wrong to it. All that is happening is people watching it come out of its home and seeing if he sees his shadow or not.”
Senior Claudia Pfaff says that changing Groundhog Day to a coin toss takes away the fun and purpose of the day. She says, “Groundhog Day brings enjoyment to people because it is a live animal, not just a boring coin. Nothing is being done to Punxsutawney Phil, so there is no reason for a tradition to be changed.”