Groundhog Day Trivia
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111 free Groundhog Day trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
72 free Groundhog Day trivia questions with answers. Groundhog Day is the strangest holiday on the calendar: a rodent in Pennsylvania is consulted about the weather by men in top hats, and tens of thousands of people show up before dawn to watch. This quiz covers the whole story, from the Candlemas badger lore German immigrants carried across the Atlantic, to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club and its Inner Circle, to the rival forecasters across North America (some of them stuffed, one of them a man in a costume). There is a run of questions on the real animal too, and a big block on the 1993 Bill Murray film and its stage musical. It suits a February trivia night, a classroom, or anyone who watched the movie for the fortieth time and wants to know what happened behind the camera. Easy questions cover the basics; the hard ones dig into dates, names and numbers. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, so you can trust the accuracy figures even if you should not trust the groundhog.
30 of 111 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which date is Groundhog Day observed each year?
February 2
Groundhog Day is February 2, the old midpoint of winter between the solstice and the spring equinox, which is why so many cultures watched the weather that morning.
Q 02According to the legend, how many more weeks of winter follow if the groundhog sees its shadow?
Six
A shadow means six more weeks of winter; the German version of the lore promised only four extra weeks, and the Pennsylvanians stretched it.
Q 03Which immigrant community brought the shadow-watching superstition to America?
The Pennsylvania Dutch
The Pennsylvania Dutch call the day Grundsaudaag, and some Grundsow Lodges still hold the whole ceremony in Pennsylvania German.
Q 04In the German lore that crossed the Atlantic, which animal originally did the shadow-watching?
The badger
Germans watched the badger (Dachs) on Dachstag; Pennsylvania settlers swapped it for the groundhog, which was common around their new homes.
Q 05Groundhog Day falls on the same date as which Christian feast, whose weather lore it inherited?
Candlemas
An old Scots couplet sums up the older belief: 'If Candlemas is fair and clear / There'll be twa winters in the year.'
Q 06In what year did the first 'official' Groundhog Day trek to Gobbler's Knob take place?
1887
The first organised trek to Gobbler's Knob came on 2 February 1887; the first known local report of the groundhog's forecast had appeared the year before.
Q 07Clymer Freas, credited as the 'father' of Groundhog Day, held what job in Punxsutawney?
Newspaper city editor
Freas worked at the Punxsutawney Spirit, the paper that printed the first known news report of the town's observance in 1886.
Q 08Phil's full ceremonial title calls him 'Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages' and what else?
Prognosticator of Prognosticators
The Groundhog Club styles him 'Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary'.
Q 09Crowds at the Punxsutawney celebration can reach roughly what size?
40,000
Crowds of up to 40,000 have gathered at Gobbler's Knob, roughly seven times the town's year-round population of 5,769 at the 2020 census.
Q 10Where does Phil live for the rest of the year when he is not forecasting?
The town's Memorial Library
He shares a climate-controlled enclosure there with his mate, and visitors can see them through a window year-round.
Q 11What is the name of Punxsutawney Phil's mate?
Phyllis
Phil's mate is Phyllis; in March 2024 the club announced the pair had produced two babies, Shadow and Sunny, a first in the event's history.
Q 12What is the top-hatted group that runs the Punxsutawney ceremony called?
The Inner Circle
The Inner Circle, in top hats and tuxedos, runs the ceremony; its vice president prepares two scrolls in advance, one for early spring and one for a longer winter.
Q 13In what language does Phil supposedly deliver his forecast to the club president?
Groundhogese
Only the current president can understand it, which conveniently makes the translation impossible to fact-check.
Q 21Which New York City mayor was bitten by Staten Island Chuck in 2009?
Michael Bloomberg
Chuck bit Michael Bloomberg's finger through his glove at the 2009 Staten Island Zoo ceremony; in later years the zoo quietly used a stand-in, Charlotte.
Q 22Which New York City mayor famously dropped the groundhog Charlotte during the 2014 ceremony?
Bill de Blasio
Bill de Blasio lost his grip on Charlotte at the 2014 Staten Island Zoo ceremony; she died a week later and, though the zoo doubted the fall was to blame, he never took part again.
Q 23Which Wisconsin city calls itself the 'Groundhog Capital of the World'?
Sun Prairie
Q 14What object supposedly gives the club president the power to understand Phil?
An ancient acacia wood cane
The club also keeps its criteria for spring versus winter a trade secret and scripts the ceremony in advance.
Q 15Per club legend, what drink has kept the same Phil alive since the 1880s?
The Elixir of Life
At the club's annual Groundhog Picnic, Phil sips the Elixir of Life, also called groundhog punch, which the club says gives him seven more years of life.
Q 16Which publication's tally, as of 2023, put Phil's accuracy at 39 percent?
Stormfax Almanac
The Stormfax Almanac's tally gave Phil 39 percent; Weather Underground's Tim Roche was harsher still, scoring him at 36 percent between 1969 and 2016.
Q 17What accuracy rate does the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club itself claim for Phil?
100%
The club insists Phil is right 100% of the time, blaming any miss on the president's translation; independent estimates put the real figure between 35 and 41 percent.
Q 18Why was the 2021 Punxsutawney ceremony held behind closed doors for the first time?
COVID-19 restrictions
COVID-19 restrictions kept the public off Gobbler's Knob in 2021; Phil's forecast was livestreamed to fans who would normally have stood there.
Q 19In 1995, Phil flew out to appear on which national TV programme?
The Oprah Winfrey Show
Phil appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago in 1995, a rare national television outing beyond Gobbler's Knob.
Q 20What is the name of the Pennsylvania Lottery's groundhog mascot?
Gus
Gus bills himself as 'the second most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania' in Pennsylvania Lottery ads, a deliberate nod of deference to Phil.
Sun Prairie took the title as a retort to a 1952 Punxsutawney Spirit article that called it a 'remote two cow village buried somewhere in the wilderness'.
Q 24In 2015 Jimmy the Groundhog went viral for doing what to a Wisconsin mayor on stage?
Biting his ear
A mayoral proclamation the next day formally absolved Jimmy XI of any wrongdoing.
Q 25What is unusual about Potomac Phil, who forecasts at Washington DC's Dupont Circle event?
He is a taxidermied groundhog
Potomac Phil is a taxidermied groundhog who 'forecasts' at Dupont Circle each year and is also asked for a political prediction.
Q 26How old was the original Wiarton Willie when found dead just before Groundhog Day 1999?
22 years old
Willie was reportedly 22 years old, far beyond a typical groundhog's lifespan, which fuelled suspicion that several animals had quietly filled the role over the years.
Q 27What was notable about Wiarton Willie V when he was introduced in 2022?
First brown groundhog in the role
Wiarton attributes Willie's powers to sitting on the 45th parallel, exactly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.
Q 28Fred la marmotte, who forecast from 2009 until his death in 2023, represented which Canadian province?
Quebec
Fred la marmotte forecast from Val-d'Espoir in Quebec's Gaspé region from 2009 until his death was announced on Groundhog Day 2023; in French Canada the holiday is Jour de la marmotte.
Q 29Alberta's Groundhog Day forecaster Balzac Billy is what, exactly?
A person in a costume
Balzac Billy is a person in a groundhog costume; wild woodchucks are scarce in Alberta, so the hamlet of Balzac makes do with a man-sized mascot.
Q 30A 2021 Lakehead University study compared 530 forecasts from how many weather-predicting groundhogs?
33
The study examined 530 forecasts from 33 groundhogs; only two animals, Oil Springs Ollie and Essex Ed, reached the 75 percent score it regarded as reliable.