Groundhog Day has its origins rooted in Candlemas, an ancient Christian tradition where candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. It is called Candlemas as it is 40 days after Christmas and is when Christmas ends long after the Epiphany and at the mass, candles are blessed by priests. Candlemas commemorates the presentation of Jesus at the Temple where the baby Jesus was presented to the Temple in Jerusalem in order to induct him into the Jewish faith.

Germans decided to expand this concept by having a hedgehog predict the weather. After arriving in America, German settlers discovered that groundhogs (AKA woodchucks) were more common than hedgehogs in the Keystone State of Pennsylvania and added them to the tradition in lieu of hedgehogs. However groundhogs only emerge from hibernation for good in March until the late autumn and only male groundhogs come out of hibernation in February to search for a mate but that didn't stop the settlers from using groundhogs as animal weather forecasters.

Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog was declared America's only true weather forecasting groundhog by a newspaper editor from the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club (a group of groundhog hunters originating from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania) in 1887 and those that have succeeded the original Phil have been known as America's most famous groundhogs. The term Groundhog Day also got a modern twist in the 1990s with the release of the film Groundhog Day where Bill Murray’s character Phil ends up living the same day on repeat which has given the day's modern day definition; something that is repeated over and over.