What language is spoken at southeastern Pennsylvania Grundsow Lodge events?

Southeastern Pennsylvania Grundsow Lodge events are conducted in Pennsylvania German. The lodges preserve Pennsylvania German identity through meals, speeches, songs, jokes, and short plays called g’spiel.

These gatherings are often called fersommlinge, a Pennsylvania German term for social assemblies. English is traditionally discouraged: participants who use it may pay a small fine for each word, with the money collected in a bowl.

The custom connects Groundhog Day with older German-speaking weather lore. German immigrants adapted Candlemas traditions to Pennsylvania, where the native groundhog replaced the European badger as the weather symbol. The first Groundhog Lodge fersommling was held in Northampton on February 2, 1934.

“Pennsylvania Dutch” here does not mean modern Dutch from the Netherlands. It refers to the Pennsylvania German language and culture. Gaelic and French are unrelated choices, while “Dutch” is a common misunderstanding caused by the English name for the community.