Groundhog Day 2016: Punxsutawney Phil sees early spring

By Joseph Netto, CNN

Updated 1815 GMT (0215 HKT) February 2, 2016

This is the famous Punxsutawney Phil in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. <a href="http://www.groundhog.org/groundhog-day/history/" target="_blank">Groundhog Day</a> is a tradition in the United States and Canada that celebrates a groundhog's emergence from his winter den. Superstition holds that if a groundhog sees his shadow as he leaves the burrow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If the groundhog does not see his shadow, you can expect an early spring. Native Americans also have traditions of animals predicting the weather, and<a href="http://www.native-languages.org/legends-groundhog.htm" target="_blank"> groundhogs figure prominently in their religions and mythology</a>.

Photos: Punxsutawney Phil and his festive friends

This is the famous Punxsutawney Phil in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Groundhog Day is a tradition in the United States and Canada that celebrates a groundhog's emergence from his winter den. Superstition holds that if a groundhog sees his shadow as he leaves the burrow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If the groundhog does not see his shadow, you can expect an early spring. Native Americans also have traditions of animals predicting the weather, and groundhogs figure prominently in their religions and mythology.

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The Easter Bunny has long been associated with Christianity's most important holiday. Rabbits are an ancient symbol of <a href="http://www.rabbit.org/journal/1/history-of-easter.html" target="_blank">fertility, the moon and spring</a>. In Germany, springtime celebrations including a magical egg-laying hare called <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/easter-symbols" target="_blank">Osterhase</a> helped lay the foundations for Easter baskets full of eggs and other goodies.

Photos: Punxsutawney Phil and his festive friends

The Easter Bunny has long been associated with Christianity's most important holiday. Rabbits are an ancient symbol of fertility, the moon and spring. In Germany, springtime celebrations including a magical egg-laying hare called Osterhase helped lay the foundations for Easter baskets full of eggs and other goodies.

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Photos: Punxsutawney Phil and his festive friends

Chicks have long been part of Easter celebrations in many parts of the world. In Lebanon, where the chicks pictured here were found, people traditionally buy colored chicks, dyed with food coloring while they are still in their eggs. Many animal rights activists frown on the coloring, as well as buying chicks as pets for Easter. Chickens can make fantastic pets, but chicks are difficult to raise.

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Photos: Punxsutawney Phil and his festive friends

Lambs are associated with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and often the Christian faithful, but have old testament significance from the Exodus story. Jews and Christians often eat lamb while celebrating Passover and Easter, respectively. Polish Easter tradition includes sweets shaped like lambs, including sugar lambs and cake that's decorated to look like a lamb.

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Photos: Punxsutawney Phil and his festive friends

Easter ducklings, like their feathery friends the chicks, also have a history as Easter gifts. It's hard to resist the fluffy down of a 2-week-old duckling. Ducks make excellent and loyal pets, according to animal expert Marc Morrone, but they are difficult to care for as babies, and are often abandoned at local ponds after Easter.

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Magical beasts have been part of Halloween since pre-Christian times. Hysterical<a href="http://www.history.com/topics/halloween" target="_blank"> fear of witches (said to turn into cats</a>) in the middle ages linked felines to the holiday.

Photos: Punxsutawney Phil and his festive friends

Magical beasts have been part of Halloween since pre-Christian times. Hysterical fear of witches (said to turn into cats) in the middle ages linked felines to the holiday.

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Spiders are also associated with Halloween imagery, thanks in part to their historic association with <a href="http://www.the-wisdom-of-wicca.com/halloween-symbols.html" target="_blank">ancient religions</a>. The myths surrounding gods and supernatural beings who can predict the future or plot fate are often associated with spinning, thread, weaving and spider webs. But after all, spiders can be scary -- some bite! -- and spooky imagery is part of the Halloween tradition.

Photos: Punxsutawney Phil and his festive friends

Spiders are also associated with Halloween imagery, thanks in part to their historic association with ancient religions. The myths surrounding gods and supernatural beings who can predict the future or plot fate are often associated with spinning, thread, weaving and spider webs. But after all, spiders can be scary -- some bite! -- and spooky imagery is part of the Halloween tradition.

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Bats are an unmistakable hallmark of Halloween. An ancient tradition associated with the holiday is the <a href="http://www.lhj.com/relationships/family/crafts/halloween-history-traditions/?page=1" target="_blank">nighttime bonfire</a>, which lit up the night sky. Bats don't have ancient associations with Halloween, but the night sky does -- and that's often where bats can be seen.

Photos: Punxsutawney Phil and his festive friends

Bats are an unmistakable hallmark of Halloween. An ancient tradition associated with the holiday is the nighttime bonfire, which lit up the night sky. Bats don't have ancient associations with Halloween, but the night sky does -- and that's often where bats can be seen.

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Photos: Punxsutawney Phil and his festive friends

Cobbler, seen here, is one lucky Thanksgiving turkey. He was pardoned by President Barack Obama on November 21, 2012, at the White House, and avoided a roasty demise. The holiday is a unique American tradition that the turkey has come to represent: For Thanksgiving, 2011, people in the United States ate an estimated 46 million turkeys. Benjamin Franklin was so enamored of turkeys that he suggested it represent the country as the national bird -- but the rest of the founding fathers preferred the bald eagle.

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Photos: Punxsutawney Phil and his festive friends

Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, but it was the worship of St. Nicholas that made reindeer significant to the holiday. St. Nicholas was born in modern-day Turkey, far away from the nordic stomping grounds of reindeer. But Dutch and German traditions of "Sinterklaas" shaped the idea of Santa Claus, a jolly old man who lives at the North Pole -- with reindeer. Then, in 1939, the story of "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was written by a Montgomery Ward department store copy editor. It hooked Americans on these adorable, wintery beasts.

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(CNN)Spring is coming! America's most iconic weather forecaster, the Pennsylvania groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, "told" this to the president of the groundhog club after not seeing his shadow at Gobbler's Knob in the town northeast of Pittsburgh.

Legend dictates that if Phil does not see his shadow on Groundhog Day, there will be early springlike weather.

Punxsutawney Phil announced his prediction in front of a crowd of thousands.

Following three taps on the door to the burrow, Phil, the "Prognosticator of prognosticators," emerged from his burrow shortly after 7:20 a.m., making the announcement in "groundhogese" to Bill Deeley, the president of the "Inner Circle," a group tasked with caring for Phil and organizing the event each year.

The president, legend states, is the only person capable of understanding Punxsutawney Phil.

Should you be ready for swimsuit weather by the end of February? Perhaps not. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration pegs Phil's accuracy at about 45%.

NOAA's October predictions for America's winter included colder and wetter than normal conditions for the Southeast, mild weather in the West and warmer weather in the Midwest and Northeast.

Punxsutawney Phil: Friend or foe?