PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. — The crowd started piling into Gobbler's Knob at 3 a.m. on Sunday, happy to wait more than four hours in freezing cold to see the celebrity groundhog Punxsutawney Phil emerge from his tree trunk on Groundhog Day.
"Phil! Phil! Phil! Phil!" they chanted as the moment finally drew near.
At 7:25 a.m., with sunrise hitting the hillside, members of the Inner Circle — the top-hatted leaders of the Groundhog Club — huddled around the tree trunk standing in the middle of the wide stage. Inner Circle President Tom Dunkel used a wooden cane to rap on Phil's door. The groundhog was brought out and held up to the sky, setting off a frenzy of cheers.
Thousands of people scrutinized Phil, a photogenic yet inscrutable animal, for any hint of his prediction — and then it came: Phil saw his shadow, predicting winter weather will stick around for six more weeks, like piles of old snow.
"There's a shadow up here — get ready for six more weeks of winter this year!" Inner Circle Vice President Dan "Moonshine" McGinley says, reciting from a scroll containing the groundhog's message. The news sparks a round of cheers from the crowd, along with some loud boos.
"We want spring!" a young man shouts. As for how Phil selects the scroll, Dunkel says the animal communicates his wishes in "groundhog-ese," which he's able to decipher thanks to his presidential cane.
Hours earlier, I joined the multitudes streaming across the hillside to fill a large clearing at the edge of the woods. We arrived by car, by bus and on foot (by 4 a.m., the Gobbler's Knob parking lot was full). The 20-degree cold would — we hoped — be blunted by the excitement of watching a tradition dating to 1887.
How to stay warm while awaiting a rodent's weather prophesy
Groundhog Day enthusiasts employ a range of strategies for coping with the cold and handling an early wakeup call.
"I have a heated vest. I have a heated hat. Have a heated scarf," Danielle Nola says of her preparations. "So I'll probably have two or three [layers of clothes] plus that."
"Same," her daughter, Olivia, says with a laugh, adding that she will wear at least two layers of socks.
"One year it was zero degrees," says Brian Lutgens of Blacksburg, Va. "We had the heat packs on our necks and chest and shoes, and layers upon layers. And we were surprisingly comfortable the whole time. So, it can be done."
Cami Lutgens, his wife, adds that the energy of the crowd helps: "Everybody's dancing and they just have great entertainment. The guys who are up there on the on the stage just keep us all energized."
The main event isn't the only party
Saturday was a full-on party in Punxsutawney, as visitors welcomed Groundhog Day falling on a Sunday.
"We're expecting that 40,000 people will flock to Punxsutawney this weekend," Anne Ryan, Pennsylvania's deputy secretary of tourism, tells NPR.
Many of those visitors flocked to Punxsy Pizza, in the town's center.
"We've been planning for months for this day" because of the weekend timing, the restaurant's owner, Scott Anthony, says. "Since we opened the doors [Saturday] morning, it's been a line of people. Our tables have been full. We have people standing and eating and a lot of action here at the bar."
In Barclay Square, the town's center, people lined up to get an early peek at Phil in his burrow habitat. Last year, Phil became a dad to two young kits, Shadow and Sunny.
"It was really exciting," a young visitor named Emily tells me. She and her family traveled from Pittsburgh, about 80 miles away. "I saw three of them," she adds. "I think one was Phil's wife, Phyllis."
Nearby, food trucks, craft makers, local breweries and distillers did brisk business, while rock bands played on a large stage.
In that festival-like atmosphere, some visitors seek to extend their revelry well into the night — perhaps even until 3 a.m., when Gobbler's Knob opens on Groundhog Day.
"After supper time, it turns into more of a party, that's for sure," Anthony says. "We close at midnight, most bars close at 2. And then people just have to hang loose until the buses start at 3 a.m. to go up to the Knob."
His bar will "probably go through about six kegs," he says.
"I'm going to stay up all night and then I'm gonna go see Phil," Rene Leonard of Springfield, Va., says wishfully, adding that her group has a designated driver.
But not everyone in Punxsutawney goes up to Gobbler's Knob for Groundhog Day: For locals, it's more of an optional activity rather than a bucket-list item.
In the community center, I found Mindy Grose and Tracy McCoy selling adorable felt and needlepoint groundhogs.
The women say they've met visitors from Germany, Spain, Australia and other countries who come to this borough to see a ground hog in his burrow.
"Some of these people have come every year for, you know, 20 years or more," McCoy says. "We see them every year. It's fun."
Both women say they routinely skip the main event, because they prefer to visit Gobbler's Knob and see Phil without the crowds and early wakeup call.
But, Grose says, she does like Groundhog Day itself.
"This is my favorite holiday," she says. "Because you don't have to cook anything. You don't have to buy anybody gifts. You don't have to even see your in-laws. You wake up, the rat comes out of the hole, poof. It's done."
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