Still from the 1993 film Groundhog Day showing Bill Murray and a groundhog driving a car
2 February 2021
Groundhog Day is a North American tradition that holds that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on 2 February and sees its shadow, winter will last another six weeks. It appears to be rooted in an older tradition that clear weather on the festival of Candlemas, which is 2 February, bodes a long winter. In Northern Europe, the prognosticating animal is usually a badger, but when the Amish brought the tradition to North America, the predictive powers were transferred to the local groundhog. Also known as a woodchuck, Marmota monax is a large ground squirrel that ranges across much of the Eastern and Midwestern United States, across Canada, and into Alaska. Several communities have Groundhog Day celebrations with “official” animal prognosticators, but by far the most famous is that of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and its rodent seer, Phil.
Official celebrations in Punxsutawney began in the 1880s, but the name Phil only dates to 1961. The name is possibly a reference to Prince Philip, husband to Queen Elizabeth II. In 1953, Punxsutawney sent two groundhogs, named Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip (the coronation had just occurred) to the Los Angeles Zoo. But the state of California declared them agricultural pests and had them destroyed as a potential invasive species. Residents of Punxsutawney were insulted. In 1961 the name Phil appears, possibly in homage to the deceased predecessor, although this origin is speculative.
But in the last few decades, a figurative meaning of Groundhog Day has arisen, that of an event or sequence of events that keeps repeating. This sense arose out of the 1993 Hollywood comedy of that name, directed by Harold Ramis and starring Bill Murray. In the movie, Murray plays a selfish and self-absorbed TV weatherman sent to Punxsutawney to report on the Groundhog Day festivities. But he finds himself in a cycle of ever-repeating Groundhog Days, which only ends when he learns to stop thinking only about himself and start working for the benefit of others.
The earliest known reference to Groundhog Day is in an 1840 diary entry by a James L. Morris of Morgantown, Pennsylvania. It appears in publication by 9 February 1857, when the Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser picked up a story that had run in the Cumberland Telegraph:
Ground Hog Day
Monday, the 2d inst., was what is known this region as the “ground hog day.” There exists a sort of half superstitious belief that this little animal comes forth from his burrow on the 2nd of February, and that if he sees his shadow, he goes back again remans six weeks longer, during which time old winter continues to keep everything bound up in his icy fetters. If that be true we shall certainly have a long winter. Monday was a beautiful day, the sun shining bright all day long.—Cumberland Telegraph.
And the Wisconsin Farmer of 1 February 1862 has this to say about it:
Ground Hog Day.—February 2d was the celebrated "ground hog day," which, according to legend, fixes the question of an early or late Spring. The story goes that on that day the ground hog—or, as the Yankees call it, woodchuck—leaves his winter quarters and sallies forth to snuff the air. If there is no sun to show him his shadow, he goes cautiously about, and will even venture to dig up a few roots, to try the hardness of the soil as well as to tickle his palate a little, after his long hibernation. But in doing this, should a glimmering of sunshine strike him sufficiently strong to mark his shadow on the ground, he hies at once to his hole, there to hibernate for six weeks—as instinct teaches him that winter will certainly linger that much longer. Should there be no patches of sunshine to disturb Mr. Woodchuck he remains out, knowing that the reign of Jack Frost will speedily terminate.
Groundhog Day remained simply the name of the tradition until 12 February 1993, when the movie of that title premiered. Within a week, the phrase was being used to refer to repeating events or unchanging conditions, albeit at first with explanatory reference to the movie. From the Hartford Courant of 17 February 1993:
Maybe it is coincidence, but since Groundhog Day, our weather pattern seems to be in a holding pattern.
In the new movie “Groundhog Day,” Bill Murray is forced to live the February day over and over again, until he gets it right.
Our weather seems to be doing the same, since Punxsutawney Phil returned to his burrow, the weather pattern has been on hold.
But by the following year, Groundhog Day was being deployed in this figurative sense. The Los Angeles Times of 24 July 1994 quotes a government official using it to describe the troubles of the Clinton Administration, although the Times reporter feels compelled to add an explanatory mention of the movie:
A year ago, during Clinton’s first, disastrous spring, “there was a feeling of potential free fall. Nobody knew if this presidency could pull it out. After victories on the budget, NAFTA, there was a sense we could make things work. Now there’s frustration that we find ourselves once again in a difficult situation. It’s like ‘Why are we back in this place again?’” the official said. “It’s like Groundhog Day,’” the official added, referring to the movie in which the main character finds himself trapped in a time warp, constantly repeating the same day.
But a few months later, on 20 November 1994, the British newspaper The Observer deployed the figurative sense without feeling the need to explain it to its readers, indicating that the phrase had fully entered the public’s vocabulary, even in a country where the original Groundhog Day celebrations have no cultural resonance:
He nearly scored another a minute later, only to be denied by a fine Lukic save. Instead, Leeds scored, with Wallace’s cross being headed in at the far post by Deane.
All in all, a good day at the office for Mr Wilkins. If, like Groundhog Day, it could be repeated every time, he might have even less hair left, but he would be a happy man.
Sources:
Buckley, Will. “Ray On the Way.” The Observer, 20 November 1994, 66. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Guardian and The Observer.
Goldstein, Mel. “We Seem Stuck, like Bill Murray in ‘Groundhog Day.’” Hartford Courant (Connecticut), 17 February 1993, B12. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
“Ground Hog Day.” Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, 9 February 1857, 2. Newsbank: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Kruesi, Margaret. “Groundhog Day. By Don Yoder. (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2003” (review). Journal of American Folklore, 120.477, Summer 2007, 367. JSTOR.
Lauter, David. “White House Awaiting Panetta’s Prescription.” Los Angeles Times, 24 July 1994, A24. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, draft additions September 2018, s.v. ground-hog, n.
Reilly, Lucas and Austin Thompson. “The Curious (and Possibly Murderous) Origins of Punxsutawney Phil’s Name.” Mental Floss, 1 February 2019, updated 30 January 2020.
The Wisconsin Farmer, 14.2, 1 February 1862, 66. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Photo credit: Still from Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis, dir., Columbia Pictures, 1993. Fair use of a single frame to illustrate the topic under discussion.