|
Punxsutawney Phil Sowerby is a groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. On February 2 (Groundhog Day) of each year, the town of Punxsutawney celebrates the legendary groundhog with a festive atmosphere of music and food. During the ceremony, which begins well before the winter sunrise, Phil emerges from his temporary home on Gobbler's Knob, located in a rural area about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of town. According to the tradition, if Phil sees his shadow and returns to his hole, he has predicted six more weeks of winter-like weather. If Phil does not see his shadow, he has predicted an "early spring."〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=Groundhog.org )〕 The date of Phil's prognostication is known as Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada, and has been celebrated since 1887. A select group, called the ''Inner Circle'', takes care of Phil year-round and also plans the annual ceremony. Members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's ''Inner Circle'' are recognizable by their top hats and tuxedos. ==Punxsutawney Phil lore== Prior to 1952, a groundhog named Pete was Punxsutawney's groundhog. Pete's downfall was caused by one William A. Swartworth, a rookie newsman in the Pittsburgh bureau of the Associated Press. As the newest staffer, Swartworth was assigned to write the bureau's annual Groundhog Day story on February 2, 1952. Veteran newsmen disdained the task, feeling it was simply an exercise of the imagination, the more fanciful the better, fabricated from three basic elements- groundhog emerges from his burrow at sunrise; if he sees his shadow, it's six more weeks of wintry weather; if not, spring is ready to burst forth. Swartworth did his job, with one exception. He changed the groundhog's name from Pete to Phil. Minutes after the story hit the news wires, the AP's Philadelphia bureau (control point for the state) sent a message challenging accuracy of the groundhog's name. Swartworth then fired off this historic reply: "Pete died. Phil is his son." Swartworth chose the name Phil after the notorious con man from the 1950s dubbed Pittsburgh Phil. And so to this day Phil remains the world's most famous groundhog weather forecaster. 〔 William A. Swartworth, former Pittsburgh Bureau Associated Press newsman〕 Punxsutawney Phil fans say that there is only one Phil, and that all the other groundhogs are impostors. It is claimed that Pete/Phil has made weather prognostications since 1887, making the Punxsutawney groundhog a legendary rather than factual figure, since groundhogs only live up to six years.〔(Marmota monax (Linnaeus); Woodchuck ). Pick4.pick.uga.edu. Retrieved on 2014-06-10.〕 It is publicly unknown how many groundhogs have actively played Phil. According to the Groundhog Club, Phil, after making the prediction, speaks to the Club President in "Groundhogese", which only the current president can understand, and then his prediction is translated for the entire world. The Groundhog Day celebration is rooted in a Celtic tradition that says if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on February 2, the Pagan holiday of Imbolc, winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow was seen, legend says spring would come early. The ties in Pennsylvania may actually come from Germans, when clear skies on Candlemas Day, February 2, were said to herald cold weather ahead. In Germany, the tradition morphed into a myth that if the sun came out on Candlemas, a hedgehog would cast its shadow, predicting snow all the way into May. When German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania, they transferred the tradition onto local fauna, replacing hedgehogs with groundhogs. In reality, the Inner Circle makes the determination as to whether or not Phil supposedly sees his shadow several days in advance of the ceremony and does not make its criteria public; this discontinuity was made obvious in the 2015 ceremonies, in which Phil “saw his shadow” and thus predicted six more weeks of winter despite overcast skies and a significant snowstorm bearing down on the town that day.〔(Punxsutawney Phil, Poor Richard make Groundhog Day predictions ). ''The Evening Sun'' (Hanover, PA). Retrieved February 2, 2015.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Punxsutawney Phil」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|