What to know about Groundhog Day’s traditions and Punxsutawney Phil
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By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press The spotlight is on Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania on Monday morning, when handlers of a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil announce whether he saw his own shadow, thereby predicting six more weeks of winter or an early spring. Thousands attend 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. And in eastern and central Pennsylvania, where people of German descent have been watching the groundhog’s annual emergence from hibernation for...