Event: United States

Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney

When:	Feb 2009 (annual)
Where:	Gobbler's Knob
Costs:	Free
Opening Hours:	5.45am

Groundhog Day is one of the United States' best-known and, for outsiders, most bizarre traditions. On 2 February every year, the top-hatted elder statesmen of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club head to Gobbler's Knob to watch Punxsutawney Phil emerge from his burrow to predict the weather.

According to the old tradition, if the groundhog sees his own shadow then there will be six more weeks of winter. If the sky is cloudy and the day is shadowless, on the other hand, then spring is on the way. The earliest written reference to Groundhog Day in Pennsylvania dates from 1841, but the event really took on its modern form in the 1880s when Clymer H Freas, the enterprising editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper, started using the event to promote the town as the "Weather Capital of the World".

Other newspapers soon picked up on Groundhog Day and it wasn't long before it became a national media event. Punxsutawney Phil is not the only weather-predicting woodchuck in the US - his rivals include Beauregard Lee in the South and Wiarton Willie near Lake Huron - but the Pennsylvanian groundhog has an unrivalled stranglehold on the imagination of the national media. The ceremony has been televised since 1966 and received even more publicity thanks to the 1993 Bill Murray comedy, Groundhog Day.

Groundhog Day is a big affair nowadays, with as many as 30,000 people visiting Punxsutawney to see it. The town also puts on a huge range of activities and celebrations in the days before and after Groundhog Day itself. These include guided tours, meals, craft fairs and more; you can even have a "Groundhog Day Marriage Ceremony, officially performed by the Mayor and witnessed by a member of the Groundhog Club."

There's no parking at Gobbler's Knob on the day itself, but shuttle buses run to the hill from all over the town. The crowds usually start to gather at around 3am; remember to dress warmly. The Groundhog Club puts on music and entertainment throughout the rest of the night; you can get coffee and there's a fireworks display at around 5am. At dawn - around 7.25am - the head of the Groundhog Club taps with his cane on the door of Phil's box and the groundhog emerges to make his official prediction of the coming weather.