When is Groundhog Day 2018?

The forecasting holiday takes place every year on February 2 in the U.S. and Canada, so it’ll land on next Friday. The idea comes from a Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog comes out of its borrow on Groundhog Day and sees a shadow due to clear weather, it will go back to its den and winter will last for six more weeks.

If the does not see his shadow due to cloudiness, it means that the spring season will arrive early. The idea comes from German-speaking areas where the badger was considered to be the forecasting animal, while Groundhog Day is an enhanced version of the tale.

The first written mention of the day came on February 2, 1840 in an entry from the diary of James L. Morris of Morgantown, Pennsylvania, in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, according to a book by Don Yoder. Morris was commenting on his neighbors who had German backgrounds.

There’s a largest Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, which draws in crowds of up to 40,000 every year, roughly eight times the year-round population of the town. The town would get about 2,000 a year until the 1993 movie Groundhog Day

with Bill Murray, which helped bring attendance up to 10,000.

The groundhog that leads the ceremonies is pretended to be a supercentenarian, with the same forecast animal offering information since 1887.