As even the mighty Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, keeper of Pennsylvania’s most famous groundhog, prepares for a virtual Groundhog Day on Tuesday, February 2, events across the region are taking various approaches to their own celebrations in a time of pandemic and social distancing.
The Union Kanaal Grundsau Lodsch No. 17 (Groundhog Lodge Number 17 on the Union Canal) has canceled its festivities along the banks of the Tulpehocken Creek in Myerstown.
Since 1981 members of the lodge have given Uni the groundhog a raft ride down the creek to a seasonal forecast celebration in English and Pennsylvania Dutch.
The Slumbering Groundhog Lodge of Quarryville similarly has cancelled its 2021 celebration with Octoraro Orphie.
That prognosticating event in southern Lancaster County has been held annually since 1908 with just one previous cancellation, in 1943 during World War II.
The annual Groundhog Day event at Valentino’s Cafe in Lancaster, featuring Vinny Valentino the stuffed woodchuck, has been canceled. Since its humble beginnings in 2009, the celebration had grown to several hundred attendees last year.
“Acorn Acres Wildlife Rehabilitation, Millersville Borough, Lancaster County, will hold its forecast event with rescue groundhog Poppy at 11 a.m. February 2 on the Facebook page of Acorn Acres Wildlife Rehabilitation.
Poppy makes her prediction through her selection among treats arrayed in front of an early spring to more winter gauge.
Grover the Groundhog and Sweet Arrow Sue, the only prognosticating husband-wife team, will make their 15th annual, Schuylkill County prognostication on the Facebook page of Sweet Arrow Lake County Park at 7:30 a.m. February 2. They will be joined by Matthew Dodd, who will perform a virtual Groundhog Day concert and share some stories about the event.
Shipoke Sheena, a chihuahua named Bubble that dresses in a groundhog costume (which is technically a bear costume), for an annual Ground Dog Day prediction and celebration in the Shipoke neighborhood of Harrisburg, won’t be doing her early-February event this year.
“Shipoke Sheena may do something in the spring… some kind of celebration,” explained her “mom,” Joanne Kaldy. “Sheena is very flexible.”
But, she explained, “people are so consumed right now with just life.”