Groundhog Calls for an Early Spring
By Annie Redfoot
Starting in 1887 was the beginning of the famous “Groundhog Day.” There are definitely many differences between the first celebration and the most recent. Considering the bands, fireworks, shops full of merchandise, and everything in between for the 2024 celebration, this holiday has become more well known through the years.
Groundhog Day is an event that began with a club of groundhog hunters who claimed to have found the one weather predicting groundhog. This single groundhog would predict if there would be six more weeks of winter or an early coming spring. This tradition has carried on and expanded into a holiday for everyone to celebrate.
As for La Roche’s journey to Groundhog Day, it all began at 2:30 AM on February 2nd. Students loaded into two vans to make the two hour drive over to Gobbler’s Knob. The arrival was around 4:30 where the students were taken over to buy a bus pass.
After browsing the options of merchandise, the group of La Roche attendees gathered into the large group already surrounding the stage. After watching the fireworks, bands perform, and other people coming up on stage to speak about Groundhog’s Day, the time finally arrived.
There was an investigation on the fate of the weather for the next six weeks. The groundhog was pulled from a tree stump on stage and the inner circle gathered around the top of the stump to discuss if there was a shadow present under the groundhog or not.
The group spent a short period of time discussing amongst each other. There was a scroll of paper describing the lack of shadow and what this entailed: an early spring. The entire crowd of attendees began celebrating loudly and cheering on this news.
As for the La Roche population, there was a celebration before making a quick exit to the bus. Then, the group attended breakfast together before returning to campus around 11 AM.
The Redhawk Post 