Groundhog Day has been celebrated for many years and has dictated many springs. The first ever Groundhog Day was celebrated in Punxsutawney, PA. It was founded by local newspaper editor Clymer Freas. He sold the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club to a group of businessmen and groundhog hunters, who researched and came down to a source called Gobbler’s Knob, where the famous groundhog became evidence of bad news when he saw his shadow, declaring that winter would continue for another 5-6 weeks. Things have obviously changed over time on how this day is celebrated. Now, Groundhog Day is celebrated by a group of local dignitaries known as the “Inner Circle”; it includes wearing top hats and adding content so it can officially proceed in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect.
Every February 2, tens of thousands of people attend the Groundhog Day events in Punxsutawney. This event was memorialized in the 1993 film Groundhog Day shot in Woodstock, IL. The fantasy comedy film is about how a man is trapped in a time loop, reliving February 2nd (Groundhog Day) every day. The film features actresses and actors like Bill Murray, Andie McDowell, Stephen Tobolowsky, Marita Geraghty, Brian Doyle Murray, Angela Paton, Rick Ducommun, Robin Duke, and Rick Overton. The movie turned out as a big success when it first released, earning over $105 million becoming one of the highest grossing films of 1993 and received multiple award nominations and won a BAFTA award for best original screenplay. Since 1992 when the movie was filmed there, Woodstock’s downtown area hosts a huge Groundhog Day festival, drawing hundreds of people to come celebrate the groundhog’s prediction every year! There have been visitors from as far as Australia along with celebrities and some of the cast from the Groundhog Day movie.
Groundhog predictions are not that high or accurate. Phil the Punxsutawney groundhog (and most famous groundhog) only has an accuracy of 39%, making his first prediction in 1887. Woodstock Willie, the groundhog who has predicted weather in Woodstock since the movie, has a much higher accuracy of 60%. The most accurate groundhog is Chuck from Staten Island, NY, who has an 85% prediction rate.
Groundhog Day is a great way for people to connect and come together to celebrate the lasts of the gloomy winter into the new beginning of spring. 56% of 2025 predictions (including Woodstock Willie) stated that we were going to have a early spring. That certainly felt wrong the last couple weeks of March as we have been dealing with heavy snow one day, then 70 degree weather and then rain and tornados the next! But we still love and respect the groundhog all the same.
