Groundhog Day is a pointless holiday. It has its roots in Germanic cultures, with it being a superstition in which if a groundhog sees its shadow, winter will last 3 more weeks. But now, it’s mostly just a quirky holiday where some funny looking animal is celebrated. 

According to the official Groundhog Day website, the holiday is only celebrated in the USA and Canada, with Canada only adopting the holiday in 2009. Most of the holiday’s fame is from the movie bearing the same name, in which time repeats itself in a loop. It’s kind of silly that a holiday is mostly relevant from a movie, and it’s a not super old movie, since it came out in the 90’s. Plus, I think most kids nowadays haven’t even seen the movie, so its relevance is waning. 

There is a televised event of the tradition, drawing a decent sized viewership of fifty thousand. But televised events that happen around the same time, such as the Super Bowl, draw over one hundred million viewers, over two thousand times more than the Groundhog Day event. For a rather American holiday, this is pathetic. 

Last is the titular animal of the holiday, the groundhog. It’s a strange animal to have a holiday about. The groundhog is rather forgettable as an animal and this holiday is the only thing keeping it relevant. Why not have a cuter animal instead? Kitten day? Puppy day? Heck, just make it a national pet’s day, since the groundhog in the event is treated more like one, rather than a wild animal. 

In the end, the holiday is very ridiculous and pointless. It serves no purpose other than to be a quirky thing, but a rather forgettable one at that. There are also so much more possible choices for an animal to celebrate, so why do we keep this one?