The Groundhog Day celebration on February 2 is a U.S. and Canadian exclusive. But it’s rooted in the European tradition of Candlemas, which commemorates the Purification of the Virgin Mary. Europeans believed that if Candlemas, celebrated on Feb. 2, was a sunny day, winter would last another six weeks. According to an old English song:

The official Groundhogs Day Holiday website credits the Germans for introducing the animal into the tradition. If the hedgehog saw his shadow on Candlemas, winter was hanging around those extra six weeks. German settlers in Pennsylvania brought the tradition to America in the 18th century, the story goes. Since there were more groundhogs than hedgehogs in Pennsylvania, the groundhog stole the show. The first known American reference to Groundhog Day comes from an 1841 entry in the diary of a Berks County, PA, storekeeper named James Morris.

At the end of the 19th century, a newspaper editor named Clyde H. Freas and Congressman named W. Smith established a yearly groundhog day festival in the town (made famous in the Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day) of Punxsutawney, PA. Local variations of the Punxsutawney festival and “Punxsutawney Phil,” take place all across the U.S. and Canada.

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