Shoot for the foot: Groundhog Day 2014 in Punxsutawney

My deal with Punxsutawney Phil -- the famous groundhog from that movie with Bill Murray (who also looks like a groundhog) -- was simple: I should take an advantage of living in Pittsburgh and visit Punxsutawney, PA, which is about an hour away. In February 2014 it happened: +Michelle Corkum and I drove to Punxsy for a night of drinking and a morning of groundhogging.

Within half-hour of Punxsy roads turn really bad and narrow, and the most prominent encounters there are huge fast trucks forcing you off the road and Amish chariots also forcing you off the road. It was a poor call to drive after dark.

Gobbler's Knob is where the groundhog reveals the prediction.

Groundhog Day attracts 30-40k people to Punxsy to party through the night and look at the groundhog in the morning. It is an enormous influx for a tiny town with a population of 6k people. The town has one main street, along which the majority of notable places are situated.

In essence, it is a tradition of alcoholic pilgrimage: it doesn't practically matter what weather prediction the groundhog makes. For more history behind the event, visit groundhog.org. For more information on animal oracles and tarot, check out this book.

Crowd at the knob.

People wake up (or never go to bed?) at 2a-5a and make their way to Gobbler's Knob. Although this year it was relatively warm (mid-30s), it rained and felt uncomfortable. By the moment we arrived, it was virtually impossible to make it closer than 200-300m to the scene.

Only a small part of the crowd.

At the crack of dawn, a group of old men in black suits -- the Groundhog Club -- bring in the groundhog, take it out, and (randomly?) pick one of two scrolls with predictions.

It's getting brighter.

This year nasty groundhog Phil predicted six more weeks of winter. After this symbolic moment, a huge number of people -- me included -- lost any interest in the animal and rushed back to the buses. A video of the groundhog ritual is below:

An interesting feature of Punxsy is the voice of traffic signals:

This is it for the substantive part of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney. Not much, really.

Groundhog Depictions

On the other hand, the town is obsessed with groundhogs. To let you feel it, here is a collection of artistic representations of groundhogs in drawings and photos. Warning: critical groundhog concentration.