Author: jeff

PHOTO: PENNSYLVANIA GREAT OUTDOORS VISITORS BUREAU

Updated at 9:15 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 2

This morning, you might be wondering: how exactly did we decide that a Pennsylvania groundhog’s shadow has anything to do with the weather? By the way, Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow Wednesday morning, thus forecasting six more weeks of winter.

As it turns out, this is a tradition centuries in the making. 

The holiday began as the Christian celebration of Candlemas Day, which took place every year on Feb. 2. On this day, Christians would take candles to their church to be blessed. 

At this time, the holiday had nothing to do with groundhogs nor the weather — the goal was to bring blessings into the home for the rest of winter.

Over the years, people began to predict the seasons based on the weather of Candlemas Day, says the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. As the following English folk song shows, if the day was bright and sunny, the winter season would be longer and colder; if skies were cloudy, a temperate spring would come soon. 

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Come, Winter, have another flight;

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,

Go Winter, and come not again.

This interpretation of Candlemas gained popularity across Europe, including Germany. The Germans were the first to introduce animals to the Candlemas tradition. s prediction beginning at 6 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2.

However, a different kind of “hog” was the center of attention on German Candlemas Day: the hedgehog. If the hedgehog saw his shadow, a six-week “Second Winter” would come. 

When Germans migrated to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania, they brought the celebration of Candlemas with them. However, there…

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The Delaware Tribe of Indians came together Saturday in prayer, ceremonial cedar smoke and song to bless the ground for a soon-to-be-constructed Delaware Veterans Memorial Wall. 

“It was a beautiful day the creator presented us with,” Lenape Veterans Committee chair Kenny Brown said Monday. “It was just a very unique and exciting experience.”

The committee has been raising funds to erect a veterans wall for several years. Following auctions, raffles, a GoFundMe account and a significant donation from the tribe, a construction company has now been hired to make way for its construction on the north side the pond at the Delaware’s tribal headquarters at 5100 Tuxedo Blvd. 

Attendees included committee member and veteran John Sumpter, the Lenape Color Guard, Chief Brad KillsCrow, Assistant Chief Jeremy Johnson, Tribal Princess Morgan Messimore, tribal domicile commissioner Allan Barnes, representatives from the Delaware War Mothers and others. 

Brown, who served in the US Army from 1966 to 1973, said he believes the Lenape Color Guard to be one of the first tribal color guards in the area to ask female veterans to participate as members. Auxiliary members include the Lenape Gourd Dance Society and Delaware War Mothers.

“We have four ladies in our color guard who present the colors with us. Two were in the Army, one was a Marine and one is Navy and they are special ladies,” Brown said.  

The wall will be about 60 feet long and 7 feet high with bronze lettering. It will feature service flags from all branches of the US military, the tribe’s turtle, wolf and turkey clans,  an honor to Prisoners of War, benches and 12×12 paving tiles etched with veterans’ names.

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