It is an ancient and folkloric tradition in North America every February 2: groundhogs come out of their burrows to predict a longer or shorter winter. Except Fred the Canadian rodent was found dead on Thursday.
In Val-d’Espoir, Quebec, the organizer of this unusual annual event, Roberto Blondin, found the inanimate animal on Thursday morning while trying to bring it out of hibernation and announced “the death of Fred” to the public, according to Radio. Canada.
According to tradition, under a beautiful sun like this Thursday, if the groundhog had seen his shadow coming out of his burrow, the meteorologist apprentices could have immediately counted on six more weeks of winter.
In keeping with tradition, despite the mammal’s death, the Quebec organizers brandished a stuffed marmot, which thanks to its shadow made it possible to predict a very late spring.
Phil is well out of his burrow
In southern Canada, in the town of Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania (northeast United States), Phil the groundhog, alive and kicking, has predicted a winter that will last another six weeks.
The tradition of weather marmots, which fall annually on February 2, was brought to the United States by German farmers who relied on the animal’s behavior to tell when to plant their fields.
If the rodent Phil – as he has been called since 1887 – sees his shadow, because the day is sunny, his keepers in Punxsutawney conclude that winter will last another six weeks and the animal will be able to hibernate again.
Chuck, much more optimistic
In New York, Chuck, who is hiding underground in the Staten Island borough, was much more optimistic: Spring is just around the corner, as he has been predicting for eight years.
Even if the true American weather forecast predicts temperatures below zero on Friday and Saturday in the American megalopolis and which estimates that groundhogs see “well in 40%” of cases for ten years.
Groundhog Day is a media phenomenon: thousands of people and dozens of reporters converge on Punxsutawney and other places in North America.
Source: BFM TV
