By Canadian Press on February 2, 2025.
Nova Scotia’s beloved celerity groundhog, Shubenacadie Sam, is predicting a long winter ahead.
The large rodent poked her nose out from the pint-sized barn door of her enclosure at a wildlife park north of Halifax this morning and stepped out into the -18 degrees cold.
She spent a few moments sniffing the air and looking around at the crowd that gathered to watch her prediction, before turning around and heading back inside her enclosure.
The director of the wildlife division at the Department of Natural Resources says Sam saw her shadow, which folklore says means six more weeks of winter.
No shadow is said to foretell the early arrival of spring-like temperatures.
Living on the East Coast, Shubenacadie Sam is typically the first groundhog in North America to issue a long-term forecast.
She will be followed by Ontario’s Wiarton Willie and Quebec’s Fred la Marmotte.
Pennsylvania’s Punxsatawney Phil, whose annual declaration has been explosively popular since the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day,” is also expected to make an appearance.
Folklorists say the Groundhog Day ritual may have something to do with Feb. 2 landing midway between winter solstice and spring equinox.
In medieval Europe, farmers believed that if hedgehogs emerged from their burrows to catch insects it was a sure sign of an early spring.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2025.
The Canadian Press
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