SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — As the sun rises over the Jordan Creek Sunday, more than 150 people are expected to brave the cold and dark to learn from two stuffed groundhogs if winter will persist another six weeks.
The 7 a.m. event at Covered Bridge Park isn't expected to match the fanfare on the other side of the state as Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his temporary home on Gobbler's Knob, but for local organizers Dave and Jean Adam, the Lehigh Valley's Groundhog Day celebration offers its own charms.
"We’re just happy with the local people because we have so much fun," said Dave Adam, president of Grundsau Lodsch Nummer Sechzeh am Yahden (Pennsylvania Dutch for Groundhog Lodge No. 16 at the Jordan).
The agenda calls for gatherers to offer prayers, sing and recite the Pledge of Allegiance in English and Pennsylvania Dutch before a sled carrying Yahden and Lee crosses the frozen creek. Yahden, Pennsylvania Dutch for Jordan, is a mounted groundhog; Lee is his puppet grandson, Dave Adam said. Once across, he will confer with Lee before announcing to the crowd whether an early spring is on the way.
"He gets it wrong about 65% of the time."Dave Adam
This year's event also includes groundhog trivia and opportunities for children to make their own groundhog puppets, the couple said.
The two said they preferred the quieter, local celebration to Punxsutawney's version. Away from the big crowds, it's more about the fun of gathering with friends, family and people celebrating their heritage, they said. Besides, the television lights appear to interfere with Phil's meteorological abilities, they said.
"He gets it wrong about 65% of the time," Dave Adam said good naturedly.
The event and the wider mission of preserving Pennsylvania Dutch culture has become a passion project for the two. They organize the Groundhog Day festivities, run the lodge and its annual meeting and lead Pennsylvania Dutch lessons at Jordan Lutheran Church. The classes attract students ranging in age from 11 to 85, they said.
"That was my first language. I don’t want to see it die. I will speak Dutch until the day I die, and I'm 82,"Dave Adam
"That was my first language. I don’t want to see it die. I will speak Dutch until the day I die, and I'm 82," Dave Adam said.
The language and customs remained strong in Pennsylvania until the 1930s and 40s, when German-Americans worked to distance themselves from Nazi Germany, he said. Over the ensuing decades, the culture and interest has faded from the region. The Kutztown Folk Festival, which highlighted Pennsylvania Dutch arts and culture, announced in November that it will not return due to rising costs and dwindling attendance.
Groundhog Day is a uniquely Pennsylvania Dutch tradition. For centuries, Germans would pull out badgers on the Christian holiday of Candlemas on Feb. 2 to predict when winter would end. When practitioners immigrated to colonial America, they took the practice with them but switched the animal to the more common groundhog.
If you go: Grundsau Lodsch Nummer Sechzeh am Yahden is hosting its 15th annual Groundhog Day celebration at Covered Bridge Park at 7 a.m. Sunday. The event is free to attend.
