Edgewater Gerry doesn’t see shadow; groundhog tradition has Christian ties

The Revs. Kristin Hutson and Jana Blazek noted Edgewater Gerry the Groundhog didn’t see his shadow. Photo: Gerald Farinas.

Well, Edgewater Gerry the Groundhog didn’t see his shadow! An early spring is coming to Chicago, according to the folk tradition.

One of the surprising things about the Groundhog Day tradition is that it has ties to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also called Candlemas—a holy day of the original pre-Reformation liturgical calendar.

In the 1700s, when Germans settled in the Pennsylvania colony, they also brought over their tradition of prognosticating the weather on the Feast Day of February 2.

But in Germany, they used badgers. The closest thing they could find in the New World were groundhogs—also called woodchucks.

Yes. It does have indigenous pre-Christian roots in what is now Germany—like Christmas trees, wreathes, and holly.