Days Until Groundhog Day

About Groundhog Day

February 2 is an American and Canadian folk tradition in which a groundhog's behavior upon emerging from its burrow is said to predict six more weeks of winter (if it sees its shadow and retreats) or an early spring (if it doesn't).

The tradition draws on earlier European weather-lore customs tied to Candlemas, and Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania is the most widely publicized groundhog associated with the custom in the US, though its actual predictive track record has been studied and found to be roughly no better than chance.

The custom has close cousins elsewhere in Europe using different animals for the same shadow-based prediction, including badgers and bears in parts of Germany, before German immigrants brought a groundhog-based version of the tradition to Pennsylvania.

The 1993 comedy film "Groundhog Day," in which a character relives the same February 2 repeatedly, has become so culturally embedded that the phrase itself is now commonly used to describe any monotonous, repeating situation unrelated to the holiday.