In another way, this holiday, loved by the inhabitants of the United States and Canada, can still be called the day of four-legged and fluffy meteorologists. On the day of the marmot, it is customary to follow the marmot, of course, it is on February 2 that crawls out of the burrow after hibernation. And that's how he will get there again, it depends when the spring comes. At least, Americans believe in it.

The essence of the belief is this: if the day is overcast, the marmot will not see its shadow and will wake up completely, then spring will come early. But the bright sunny day, on the contrary, will scare the animal and the marmot will hide again, in which case the winter will drag on for another 6 weeks

The essence of the belief is this: if the day is cloudy, the marmot will not see its shadow and wake up completely, then spring will come early. But on a bright sunny day, on the contrary, the animal scares the marmot and hides again - in that case the winter will drag on for another 6 weeks.

People began to observe the behavior of animals and associate it with the weather even before our era. The Romans predicted the approach of spring to hedgehogs, the Germans watched the badgers, in America this responsibility was brought to the marmots
Groundhog Day

Of course, now people's signs do not work, only occasionally they hit the target. And the marmot-predictors have to wake and pull out of the hole. But all this unnaturalness of the once natural ritual does not prevent Americans and Canadians from celebrating the marmot's day in a noisy and fun way.

Many people in the USA go to the burrows of famous meteorological marmots on February 2: Phil, Willie, Chuck, Sam, Billy, Jimmy and General Lee. Near the animals' dwellings, merry festivals are held, which gather crowds of tourists.

The most famous and the first official American marmot, the forecaster - Phil - lives in the mountains of Pennsylvania. The services of the local "specialist" have been used by the people of the state since 1886, and the festival is held annually. Here, of course, there is some factual error - marmots in the nature live no more than 20 years, but this is no hindrance to the holiday.

The Russian introduced the fantasy film "Groundhog Day", which was released in 1993. Since then we are willing to use the common expression, meaning the same everyday life.

To go far, in order to watch the marmot, in general, not necessarily: in every area of ​​Canada or the US there is a popular rodent weatherman. And near his hole there will necessarily be a crowd of dancing and singing people.