In a letter to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) threatened to send them a vegan “weather reveal cake” if they would stop removing Punxsutawney Phil from his burrow for his February 2 prognostication. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro responded to the letter on Friday.
“Come and take it,” Shapiro said on Twitter in response to a post about PETA’s demand in the New York Post.
Shapiro’s spokesperson, Manuel Bonder, assured the governor that he stands by his remarks and that he will return to Gobbler’s Knob in Jefferson County on Sunday to see Phil’s 138th weather forecast.
Since taking office in 2023, Shapiro has attended all of Punxsutawney’s Groundhog Day ceremonies.
Ingrid Newkirk, the president of PETA, told the Post that Phil isn’t allowed to live the usual groundhog lifestyle “for a tired old gimmick.”
Phil and his “wife,” Phyllis, are available to visitors to Punxsutawney in the borough library throughout the year. Additionally, the rodents had recently become proud parents to a new baby groundhog when this reporter last visited the region.
Even though Groundhog Day is a national holiday and was made famous by the iconic 1993 Bill Murray movie of the same name, many Pennsylvanians have a particular place in their hearts for the day and Phil.
There are “Grundsau Lodsch” or Groundhog Lodges in many traditionally Pennsylvania German communities around the Commonwealth, in addition to the grand event in western Pennsylvania.
In honor of its totem, Phil, each lodge hosts an annual banquet, or “Versommling.” Since 1934, Allentown’s “Lodsch Nummer Ains a de Lechau” (Lodge #1 on the Lehigh River) has hosted its own on the actual February 2 holiday.
For decades, “Versommlinge” has also been held in 19 additional lodges located throughout the state.
However, three have closed recently due to a reduction in younger generations’ interest in Pennsylvania German language and culture: “#2, Schibbach” in Montgomery County, “#3, Temple U.” in Philadelphia County, and “#5, Bind Bush” in Schuylkill County.
Stories and riddles from lodge elders told in Pennsylvania German, a traditional Pennsylvania German supper, local beer on tap, and, of course, Phil himself were all part of the March 2024 Versommling for “Lodge #18 a de Forelle Grick” (on Trout Creek) in Slatington.
Until recently, groundhog lodges had a rule against speaking English and instead required “Pennsilfaanisch,” for fear that the person who did so would throw a nickel in a donation jar on their table.
Phil has had more luck than other states’ groundhogs; in 2014, Staten Island Chuck was notably dropped during a ceremony in West New Brighton by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio. Chuck seemed to land on his head, but he eventually died from internal injuries.
According to Bonder, Shapiro will continue to defend the groundhog and his tradition and will be available for future wintertime forecasts in Punxsutawney, given the significance Groundhog Day and Phil himself represent for Pennsylvania’s past and present.
