Star Vanamali takes a selfie with French Creek Freddie Monday during the Groundhog Day Celebration at the West Virginia Wildlife Center. Vanamali is a Washington, D.C., resident who went to the event with a friend, April Eutsey of New Jersey. The pair are Groundhog Day enthusiasts who travel America and Canada to attend a different celebration each Feb. 2.
FRENCH CREEK, W.Va. — A word of advice: Don’t play cards with French Creek Freddie because he stacks the deck.
That’s according to Rob Sylvester of the West Virginia Wildlife Center, where Freddie predicted an early spring Monday during the annual Groundhog Day Ceremony.
About 75 people came out in the bitter cold to watch Freddie do his thing. According to Sylvester, Freddie is never wrong.
“One of the questions I get from people every year is, ‘How accurate is Freddie?'” Sylvester said. “Well, he’s always right. Whatever he comes up with today, I guarantee you that in six weeks it’ll be the first day of spring. Because if you go home and look at your calendar, that’s when it is.”
And thus the warning that Freddie always bets on a sure thing.
Still, those who attended the event enjoyed the tradition, which has early European origins, Sylvester said.
“The Christian Clergy used to bless candles on Candlemas day. The saying went if the sun shined on Candlemas day, the snow would swirl until May,” he said.
According to Sylvester, the Germans used a hedgehog. If the hedgehog saw its shadow on Candlemas day, there would be six more weeks of bad weather.
“But when the Germans came to this country they couldn’t find a hedgehog. They don’t exist in North America. So they made a substitution,” he said.
Groundhog Day has become a major annual event in the lives of Star Vanamali of Washington, D.C., and April Eutsey of New Jersey. The best friends travel around America and Canada to attend a different Groundhog Day Event each year.
“We’ve been doing it for the past 10 years together. We do it for fun and we blog about it,” Eutsey said.
The pair have been to Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and numerous other locations. They document their adventures at www.groundhogday365.wordpress.com.
Each time they visit somewhere new, they make time for sightseeing and make sure to get a taste of the local culture.
“We think it’s cool to see the different cultures and celebrations,” Vanamali said. “We started doing this in grad school. We’re best friends, so it’s a great way to spend time together. And it’s a holiday that a lot of people overlook.”
Vanamali may be somewhat biased, considering she’s a wildlife science major.
Judy Channell is secretary of the West Virginia Wildlife Center, where Groundhog Day has been celebrated since 1978.
It all started when the superintendent at the time got a call from a member of the media who wanted to know if the Wildlife Center (then called the Game Farm) had a groundhog and if it saw its shadow.
The superintendent decided to break the center’s standing rule against naming its animals and he told the reporter, “Sure, we have one and his name is Freddie,” Channell said.
Channell said that French Creek Freddie and Punxsutawney Phil are cousins but don’t stay in touch. While there’s no apparent bad blood, Channell said, “The two of them don’t always agree.”
