The first official Groundhog Day celebration took place on February 2, 1887, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. It was the brainchild of local newspaper editor Clymer Freas, who sold a group of businessmen and groundhog hunters—known collectively as the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club—on the idea.
The men trekked to a site called Gobbler’s Knob, where the inaugural groundhog became the bearer of bad news when he saw his shadow.
Nowadays, the yearly festivities in Punxsutawney are 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. (They supposedly speak to the groundhog in “Groundhogese.”)
Every February 2, tens of thousands of spectators attend Groundhog Day events in Punxsutawney, a borough that’s home to some 6,000 people. It was immortalized in the 1993 film “Groundhog Day,” which was actually shot in Woodstock, Illinois.
In reality, Groundhog Day, the occasion, represents for many a sign of hope that we might experience a short winter.
“Groundhog Day,” the movie, has come to symbolize doing the same thing again and again and not being able to break out of that cycle.
As New Year’s resolutions have begun to fade now that the calendar has turned from January to February, “Groundhog Day” might give us all resolve in doing things differently in 2022.
Last week, I flipped on cable news on the TV—which I rarely do—and it was like “Groundhog Day,” the movie. The talking heads were litigating the same topics that we’ve been seeing for a full year. Remember when cable news had news and not just politics? I miss those days.
Locally, these days we are knee-deep in elections, early voting for the primary starts in February, and the deadline to file for school and city offices will be in February.
The newspaper sends questionnaires to each candidate, and we strive to pose these questions in a way that does not elicit “Groundhog Day” types of answers— those being, what people are against, who the bad guys are, why red is better than blue, and vice-versa. Our questions are designed to find out what each candidate thinks they can actually do to help the people they will be elected to serve, and how.
If you are a candidate for local public office in any upcoming local race, please reach out to us with your email and phone number, and request a questionnaire. We look forward to sharing your background and insights with our readers.
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