By: Gracie Anthony 

     Since 1886, every year on February 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Groundhog’s Day has been celebrated the way that we know it today. The holiday wasn’t always about watching a fuzzy animal look for their shadow to predict how much longer the winter was going to last. According to www.groundhog.org, Groundhog’s Day started out as a Christian holiday where Christians would take their candles to be blessed by the church because they believed it would bring them blessings. Over the years, the tradition evolved into a holiday, which was called Candlemas, where the candle brightness would predict the weather. The idea of the groundhog was introduced when the Germans created their own version of the holiday. They would watch a hedgehog look for its shadow to predict the upcoming weather. When the Germans moved to America, they switched to a groundhog because of the absence of hedgehogs. The first time Groundhog’s Day was shown in the local newspaper in Punxsutawney was in 1886 and the holiday has been growing in popularity ever since.