What to know about Groundhog Day traditions and Punxsutawney Phil

The handlers of a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil at Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania announced that he saw his own shadow Monday morning, thereby predicting six more weeks of winter and not an early spring.

Thousands attended the annual event that exploded in popularity after the 1993 Bill Murray movie, “Groundhog Day.”

It’s part of a tradition rooted in European agricultural life, marking the midpoint between the shortest day of the year on the winter solstice and the spring equinox.