It was a cold morning on Mount Penn as Reading’s Patty Pagoda made her way out from the historic Pagoda to make her Groundhog Day proclamation.
For the 18th year, residents, community leaders and the media gathered at the landmark for the annual event.
Just before Patty made her prediction, Mike Reinert, representative of the nonprofit, Pagoda/Skyline Inc., gave a brief history of Groundhog Day for those in attendance.
“February 2nd is Candlemas Day, the mid point of Winter. It all started hundreds of years ago when people would bring their candles to Church so clergy could bless them to last for the rest of winter” said Reinert.
“Then in 1887, Pennsylvania Germans started to notice the weather conditions on Candlemas Day foretold the rest of the winter. Somehow or another, they started noticing Groundhog behavior to forecast the weather.”
Although it was chilly, the freezing temperatures didn’t stop the small crowd from enjoying the event.
Patty Pagoda did see her shadow and predicted six more weeks of Winter. Punxsutawney Phil agreed! Phil called for six more weeks of winter in front of thousands of fans at Gobbler’s Knob.
