The world's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow yesterday, predicting that winter will last for six more weeks. Apparently, Phil is the latest in a line of rodents that have been "prognosticating" on the length of winter for 123 years.

 

The legend sais that if a hibernating animal wakes up and sees its shadow on the 2^nd of February, winter will last six more weeks. If there is no shadow, spring will supposedly come very soon.

 

The annual ritual in the western Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney took place just after dawn on a small hill called Gobbler's Knob where the Phil ceremonially emerged from his "burrow" in front of an estimated 13,000 witnesses. The groundhog is thought to have communicated his weather prediction to Bill Cooper, a top-hatted town elder who claims to be the only person in the world to speak "Groundhogese."

 

The authorities in Punxsutawney spent around $30,000 on Groundhog Day each year, hoping to maintain Phil's status as the benchmark forecaster. In spite of the fact that there is absolutely no scientific evidence that the animal has any weather-predicting skills, locals of the Pennsylvanian village said that Phil was always right. The U.S. National Climate Prediction Center stated that groundhogs get it right about 39 percent of the time.

 

Either way, 13,000 people from Japan, Iceland and Egypt came to the ritual, now turned into a real festival, to witness Phil doing his thing in freezing temperatures.

 

Actually, the event is based on the festival of Candlemas, which inspired a 1993 movie called “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray, in which the action took place at Punxsutawney.