By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
The world’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, emerged from his winter hibernation Tuesday on Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and predicted another six weeks of winter.
But few people are aware that the annual ceremony every Feb. 2 was not that big a deal until a local Jewish coal mine operator added pizzazz to the festivities,
The Forward reported.
According to the website jewishfamilieshistory.org, Punxsutawney was incorporated in 1849 and the first synagogue was founded in 1889. In the mid-20th century, the Light family was well known in town with the patriarch Abraham Light, who owned several coal companies and was director of the Punxsutawney National Bank. Light’s son Sam was also in the coal business but made his name as president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club from 1952 to 1976.
Courtesy of Jeffrey Lundy
Sam Light and Phil, Punxsutawney’s famous groundhog.
Soon after becoming president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club in 1952, Sam Light decided he would give the day some added flair by wearing a top hat and tails when he pulled the town’s famed groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, from a tree stump shortly before 7:30 a.m. to determine if he could see his shadow. If he could not, it meant an early spring. If he could, it meant six more weeks of winter.
“In those days, celebrities and other important people would arrive in New York aboard ocean liners, and there to greet the ships was Grover Whalen [chairman of the Mayor’s Committee on Receptions to Distinguished Guests],” recalled Light’s widow, Elaine. “He wore a tall hat and tails. Sam adopted that costume to greet the groundhog because he said he, too, was a very important person.”