Actually, the name woodchuck has nothing to do with wood, or chucking it, according to the Animal Diversity Web. The word woodchuck comes from a Native American word, wuchak, which roughly translates as “digger.”
Nevertheless, according to Cornell, a wildlife biologist sought to answer the tongue-twister’s question. He measured the volume of a woodchuck burrow and estimated that if the hole were filled with wood rather than dirt, the woodchuck would have chucked about 700 lbs. (Woodchucks, however, typically do not chew wood.)
First Groundhog Day
According to History.com – On February 2, 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, was celebrated for the first time at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, it gets scared and runs back into its burrow, predicting six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring.
Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas, when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans expanded on this concept by selecting an animal–the hedgehog–as a means of predicting weather. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs, which were plentiful in the Keystone State.
In 1887, a newspaper editor belonging to a group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney called the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club declared that Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog, was America’s only true weather-forecasting groundhog. The line of groundhogs that have since been known as Phil might be America’s most famous groundhogs, but other towns across North America now have their own weather-predicting rodents, from Birmingham Bill to Staten Island Chuck to Shubenacadie Sam in Canada.
That’s all for now. Thanks for checking in and here’s hoping the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow! My old bones would appreciate an early spring. Take care. Aunt Eunice
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