Today is Groundhog Day: what it means and portends

Today, on February 2, everyone in Ukraine and many other countries around the world is celebrating Groundhog Day, an event that is believed to be the sign of the end of winter and the beginning of spring, UNN reports.

In ancient Rome, on February 2, a hedgehog was woken up from its hibernation and its behavior was used to predict the arrival of spring. The custom has been preserved by Western European peoples, including the Germans.

And it was the German settlers who settled in the United States in the 1700s who brought with them the custom of waking up a hedgehog to learn about changes in the weather. However, there were not enough hedgehogs in those parts, but there were marmots, which also spend the winter in hibernation.

The official date of Groundhog Day is February 2, 1886. At that time, the local newspaper of Punxsutawney, a city in Pennsylvania, published the news that on Groundhog Day, the animal did not see its shadow. The Punxsutawney groundhog was named Big Phil, and since then all of his local successors have been named after him.

Observing a groundhog coming out of its hiding place on this day, you need to pay attention to its behavior, which can determine the proximity of the long-awaited spring. If it is a cloudy day and the groundhog cannot see its shadow, but calmly leaves its burrow, it is highly likely that winter will soon end and spring is expected to be early this year. If the day is sunny and the groundhog sees its shadow and goes back to hide in the hole, then winter will most likely last another six weeks.

Ukraine has its own soothsayer, a marmot named Tymko, who lives in the Kharkiv region. He makes predictions at the biological station of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in the village of Haidarakh.

In 2022, the groundhog Tymko III made a prediction that spring in Ukraine was supposed to come on schedule, but it was supposed to be unstable and cold. Indeed, the spring of 2022 was cold and people wore winter jackets almost until May.

Subsequently, in May 2022, it became known that Kharkiv marmot Tymko was under Russian occupation. Together with Tymko, there were up to 38 other marmots under Russian occupation, who lived at the biological station of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University on the territory of the Velykyi Burlutskyi community.

The Velykoburlutska community was liberated from the Russian occupiers on September 11, 2022.

In 2023, Babak Tymko gave a "forecast" that spring would come in mid-March.

At the time, the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center commented on the groundhog's "predictions", saying that it had nothing to do with serious scientific forecasts and weather forecasting.

"The idea of this holiday remains unchanged - to draw attention to biodiversity and preservation of the Ukrainian steppe" (in Ukraine), say the co-organizers of the event.

Last year, Tymko the Groundhog predicted on February 2 that spring in 2024 would arrive in six weeks. 

However, Ukrainians felt the real spring warmth in April.

In 2019, the groundhog Timko predicted who would take the Iron Throne in the Game of Thrones series. Timko III decided from the photos of Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Cersei Lanister that the Night King would take the Iron Throne.

However, the Night King was killed by Arya Stark and Bran Stark took the throne. Winterfell became independent under Sansa Stark.

However, changes are expected this year.

The head of the press service of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Lilia Zmiy, told a UNN journalist that due to the unstable condition of the marmot Tymko III, for the first time, he will make a forecast for spring remotely - in his hibernation and only in the presence of biologists.

"He does this because of the danger of transportation, and also because he wakes up and takes naps. It's best for him to be in a more familiar environment," Zmiy explained.

In this way, Tymko will herald the arrival of spring this year right from his home - a biological steppe hospital in the Velykyi Burlutskyi community.