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Phil’s Inner Circle
By Linda Tancs
Surrounded by his inner circle of men in black tails and top hats, Phil is a solitary creature who leaves his abode at Gobbler’s Knob in the Punxsutanwey region of Pennsylvania just once a year to reckon the start of spring. You see, Phil is a groundhog–and today is his day. Legend has it that if a groundhog sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring. Punxsutanwey Phil has been making predictions since the 1800s, but the celebration of Groundhog Day began with the Germans. Pennsylvania’s earliest settlers, they associated groundhogs with their observation of the Candlemas legend “for as the sun shines on Candlemas day, so far will the snow swirl in May….”
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