Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient tradition of Candlemas, when clergy would bless and distribute candles to local residents during cold winters. Germans expanded this concept by selecting an animal -- a hedgehog or badger as a means to protect themselves from winter weather. When German settlers came to Pennsylvania in the 1800s they brought their customs with them. However, they chose the native woodchuck (so plentiful in the Keystone State at the time) as their annual forecaster. In 1887 a newspaper editor, belonging to a group of groundhog hunters (called the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club), declared that Phil, a local tamed groundhog was America's only weather predictor. The men trekked to a site called Gobbler's Knob were the inaugural groundhog became the bearer of bad news when he saw his shadow.
In 1993, the movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray popularized the usage of groundhog day to be staged every year. Other towns in the country have since declared their own weather-predicting rodents and thus a tourist industry around this event was born. Today, tens of thousands of visitors converge on Gobbler's Knob each February the second to witness Phil's prediction. This 3-day festival is presided over by a band of local dignitaries known as the Inner Circle. Its members wear top hats and conduct the official proceedings in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect.
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