Groundhog Day, traditionally celebrated each year on Feb. 2, will be observed in Myerstown on Saturday, Feb. 1, this year so that Uni, the Union Canal’s prognosticating whistlepig, can “go to church on Sunday,” organizers told LebTown.
The event will take place at 8 a.m. at the Myerstown Recreation Park on South College Street, Myerstown.
The change in dates, according to a press release from the Union Kanaal Grundsau Lodsch #17 of Eastern Lebanon County, is because Uni “is a church going grundsau!” The Grundsau Lodsch #17, according to the release, is “a group of men dedicated in persevering their Pennsylvania Dutch roots.” The Eastern Lebanon County chapter of the lodge is one of 17 located in eastern Pennsylvania.
They have hosted this event since 1981. Typically, more than a hundred people line the creek banks to watch Uni’s yearly prognostication.
For the local event, Lodsch #17’s stuffed mascot Uni is paraded from his local hibernation spot in town to a boat on the Tulpehocken Creek – which was once a part of the old Union Canal – to seek his shadow and to predict the coming of spring. Uni, according to lodge members, has never been wrong.
For anyone bound by the more pedestrian laws of time and space, the spring equinox this year begins at precisely 5:01 a.m. on Thursday, March 20. Not that such conventions have ever mattered much to the groundhogs of the world; according to the lore, if a groundhog sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter, and if he doesn’t, it’s an indication that spring is around the corner.
Shadows are not likely, if the long-range forecast at Accuweather.com can be believed. According to the forecast, Myerstown on Feb. 1 will be mostly cloudy, with temperatures right around the freezing point.
Some historical perspective
Groundhog Day – although observed throughout North America and popularized by the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell – has deep roots in the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.
According to an article collected by the Library of Congress for its American Folklife Center project, Groundhog Day “is celebrated in many places in the United States and Canada, with an emphasis on tongue-in-cheek humor and ceremonious proclamations. It is best known among people whose ancestors spoke German, especially the Pennsylvania Dutch.”
The holiday sprouted from an ancient European pagan holiday known as Imbolc, which was later Christianized as the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, the Irish feast of St. Brigid, and Candlemas. “But the tradition of predicting the weather persisted through many of the holiday’s variations,” the article notes.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know that much else about how ancient Celts celebrated Imbolc, but its importance as the first day of spring persisted to living memory,” it states. “Weather prognostication, then, became associated with the beginning of February during ancient times, and the tradition persists until today. But this still leaves us in the dark as to the groundhog and his role in the process!”
In Europe, notably, the forecasting tradition belonged to the humble badger, rather than the groundhog, “but the traditions are otherwise almost identical.” The European badger, like the American groundhog, is “a small, hibernating, forest-dwelling mammal known for being very shy, and it was only natural for German-speaking immigrants to America to substitute the groundhog for the badger.”
Groundhog Day customs have led to “a fascinating development in Pennsylvania Dutch country: the ‘Groundhog Lodges,’ a loose organization of social clubs focused on the maintenance of Pennsylvania Dutch language and culture. The lodges, which hold meetings called ‘versammlinge,’ at which participants speak only Pennsylvania Dutch, have existed since the 1930s.”
There are plenty of groundhogs marking the occasion throughout Pennsylvania. Punxsutawney Phil, in western PA, has garnered the most fame. Lebanon County also boasts a second furry meteorologist: Mount Gretna’s Grady, who has been making forecasts since 2018.
Questions about this story? Suggestions for a future LebTown article? Reach our newsroom using this contact form and we’ll do our best to get back to you.
Free news isn’t cheap. If you value the journalism LebTown provides to the community, then help us make it sustainable by becoming a champion of local news. You can unlock additional coverage for the community by supporting our work with a one-time contribution, or joining as a monthly or annual member. You can cancel anytime.
