The whole hog on Groundhog Day

In 1887, Clymer H. Freas was inspired by a group of local hunters and gourmets who held a groundhog hunt around Candlemas followed by a picnic barbecue of fresh caught “whistle-pig”

UPDATE : Feb 2, 2008 There was no shadow on the ground
Which means that spring will come around.
Flowers will bloom and life will begin
The waters will warm then we can jump in.

Groundhog Day has its origins in an ancient celebration of a point mid-way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. The early Christian culture which expropriated the day from the pagans rebranded it as “Candlemas day”, a day for the blessing of candles. An old English saying about the day was as follows.

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.

North American groundhog history actually leads back to Gobbler's Knob, in Punxsutawney Pennsylvania and Clymer H. Freas, the then editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper. In 1887, he was inspired by a group of local hunters and gourmets who held a groundhog hunt on Candlemas followed by a picnic barbecue of fresh caught “whistle-pigs” so named for their habit of squealing when nervous not unlike a guinea pig.
Freas wrote about the “Punxsutawney Groundhog Club” and went on to promote the Groundhog Day and the Groundhog as a weather forecaster.

Every year he added to the story and soon other papers looked to “Punxsutawney Phil” for the critical prediction of when spring would return to the nation. Other prognosticating rodents popped up to claim a piece of the action and continue to this day. Most of these furry "forecasters" have a following that includes locals, visitors and the media. The revered groundhogs typically preside over festival events before making their grand appearance to check for shadows on the morning of February 2.

A political assistant for the Ontario Minister of Health in 1956 known only as “Mackenzie” is claimed to be the founder of the Wiarton festival. He used some of those contacts to put out press releases, mostly as a joke, but the consequences couldn't have been predicted. Editors at the Toronto Star somehow got hold of one of the releases. They dispatched a reporter to cover the festival, which was a highly unusual step.

When the reporter arrived, no one could point him to the festival. McKenzie said baffled merchants finally referred the bewildered writer to the Arlington Hotel, where he and his group of 25 friends were whooping it up.

That's when fate stepped in and sealed Wiarton's fate. "He had to have a story," McKenzie said with a laugh. "He couldn't go back to Toronto without something. So we tossed a fur hat with a button on it into the snow. We said it was a groundhog, and the photo ran in the Star." That staged story and photo may have violated more than a few journalistic ethics, but everyone was having too much fun to care.

The following year, about 50 people showed up for the festival. Half of those were reporters from various sources, including the CBC and Canadian Press. That's when McKenzie's fertile mind kicked into full gear. He knew he had something completely out of the ordinary turn of events, and the rest, they say, is history.

Wiarton Willie’s prediction for 2006

Willie’s shadow did not appear
Which means springtime is almost here
The time of year when flowers grow
When we finally see the end of snow

Jim McCaul

info@myneighbourhood.ca
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