By Tassanee Vjponsa and Mark Scolforo
Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (AP) -Punxsutawney Phil saw its shadow on Sunday and predicted six more weeks of winter climate, its best announced hat managers to a record crowd in Gobbler’s stem in Pennsylvania.
Phil was well received with the songs of “Phil, Phil, Phil”, and took out of a hatch in the stump of his tree shortly after the dawn before a member of the Groundhog Club of Punxsutawney read from a scroll in which he boasted : “Only I know, you can” trust AI “
The Woodchuck’s time forecast is an annual ritual that dates back to more than a century in western Pennsylvania, with much older roots in European folklore, but the movie “Marmota Day” by Bill Murray was needed Transform the event into what it is today, with tens of thousands of Juerguistas on the scene and imitators dispersed throughout the United States and beyond.
When it is considered that Phil has not seen his shadow, that is said to begin at the beginning of spring. When you see it, there will be six more weeks of winter.
The crowd received a fireworks show, confetti and live music that went from the Ramones to “Pennsylvania Polka” while waiting for dawn and the emergence of Phil. Governor Josh Shapiro, local and state elected officials and a couple of winners of the contest were among the dignitaries on the scene.
The New York Gingerbread Artist, Jon Lovitch, has attended the event for 33 years.
“I like cold, you know, and this is probably the best and biggest winter party worldwide,” Lovitch said in Punxsutawney. “And it’s a very good moment.”
Phil has predicted a longer winter much more frequently than at the beginning of spring, and an effort to track its precision concluded that it was right less than half of the time. What means six more winter weeks is subjective.
Tom Dunkel, president of Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, says that there are two types of people who do the walk through the Gobber knob: the faithful who seek to validate their beliefs and the skeptics who wish to confirm their skepticism.
Phil communicated his prognosis for Dunkel through “Groundhog-Es” with the help of a special cane that Dunkel has inherited as the club leader. It is not as if they spoke in English words.
“He will like Wink, will snort, he will chat, he, you know, nod,” Dunkel said.
The assistance is free, but it cost $ 5 to take a bus and avoid a 1 mile walk (1.6 kilometers) from the middle of the city to the stage where the prediction was made, about 80 miles (123 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh . The need for so many buses is the reason why local schools, where the sports pet is the chucks, near when the day of the marmot falls on a working day.
Keith Post, his wife and a friend have seen the “Marmota Day” movie in each of the last five years and decided that this was time to make Ohio’s trip to witness the event.
“We reserve rooms almost a year in advance and we are here,” said Post. “We are doing it.”
A new welcome center opened four years ago and the club is working in a second life space for Phil and his family so that they can divide the time between Gobbler’s Knob and Phil’s house in the city library. The club also placed large video screens and more powerful speakers this year to help attendees to the back of the crowd to follow the procedures.
“It is a party where you really do not owe anything to anyone,” said Aj Dereume, who among the internal circle of 15 club members serves as a Phil handler and keeps the cheers to Routes on Sunday. “You are understanding belief, you know, in something that is fun to believe.”
Jackie Handley agreed a year ago to visit Punxsutawney for the first time to help a friend mark an article on her desire list. They were ready for parenting temperatures.
“It’s once in life, we probably won’t come back. And we have tons of warm clothes, ”said Handley, who lives in Falls Church, Virginia.
After the forecast was made, the members of the club and Phil posed for photos with people of the crowd.
Phil has a wife, Punxsutawney Phyllis, and two puppies born this spring, Shadow and Sunny, although his family did not join him on stage for the great event. The Marmota family eats fruits and vegetables, receives daily visits from Dereume and sees a veterinarian at least once a year.
The club’s tradition is that Phil is Woodchuck himself who has been broadcasting meteorological forecasts for the last century, thanks to an “elixir of life” that keeps him immortal.
“There is only one phil, and it is not something that can be transmitted,” Dunkel said. “Like Santa Claus and Easter bunny, there is only one.”
There have been events of Marmota’s Day in at least 28 US states and Canadian provinces. In Pennsylvania, the marmotes predicted more on winter Sunday in Mount Joy, Dover, York, the County of Lebanon and the municipality of Manheim of the Lancaster County. But in Slumering Groundhog Lodge in Quarryville, it was said that hide ORPHIE predicts that spring is on its way.
In Georgia, about 50 miles (81 kilometers) to the southeast of Atlanta in Jackson, a marmot called “General Beauregard Lee” saw his shadow, declared his handlers, which means six more weeks of winter. It was said that Shubenacadie Sam in a wildlife in Nueva Scotia, Canada, also saw her shadow and predicted six more weeks of winter.
___
Vejponsa reported from Punxsutawney. Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Originally published:
