The truth Behind Phil

By Madison O'Donnell- News

Punxsutawney Phil is the groundhog we celebrate every year on February 2nd. It’s not exactly Phil who we are celebrating, but rather the idea of him controlling the seasons. Most hope he will bless us with six more weeks of spring, but there is also a chance of us getting six more weeks of winter. While it is fun to celebrate every year, we can’t exactly count on Phil as a reliable weatherman. 

Despite having resources like satellites, radars, and real meteorologists, people still like to believe in Phil’s weatherman abilities. What is a little sad is that Phil’s accuracy is only 39%. Phil’s magic is only to entertain the public, but did he really start the whole idea of Groundhog Day?

Groundhog Day actually stems from Candlemas, a feast on February 2nd – 40 days after Christmas – where candles are blessed for the rest of the year. In years past, people believed that if the weather was clear on February 2nd, then winter would linger, and if it was cloudy then spring would come early. After some time, Germans developed a tradition of watching a Badger and determining if you could see his shadow or not (like now). German immigrants to the United States replaced the badger with a groundhog because it is more common, and that has led us to celebrating Phil!

Phil is on thin ice this year when it comes to the public, with many saying that Phil should be canceled for what he predicted this year… You guessed it, 6 more weeks of winter! After the months of icy roads and frigid temperatures, people are sick of winter and just needed some reassurance that they would soon be free of this weather. But with Phil’s statistics, I think we can assume that he is likely wrong. And even though Groundhog Day is just a fun tradition, maybe we will get an early spring this year! The moral of this story is to give Phil a break. He’s just a poor groundhog who got picked for a big job.