Which Pennsylvania town is home to the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge ceremony?

The Pennsylvania town home to the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge ceremony is Quarryville.

The Slumbering Groundhog Lodge is one of the regional Pennsylvania Groundhog Lodges associated with Pennsylvania German culture. It was formed in 1907 and conducts its ceremony in Quarryville, in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania. Unlike the globally famous event in Punxsutawney, this lodge represents a distinct local tradition.

The lodge once competed with Punxsutawney for prominence in Groundhog Day celebrations. Its ceremony is especially notable because it uses a taxidermic groundhog rather than a live animal. That detail can surprise visitors who assume every Groundhog Day event follows the Punxsutawney model.

Pennsylvania German Groundhog Lodges often hold social gatherings called fersommlinge. Food, speeches, songs, and comic plays or skits may accompany the forecast. Pennsylvania German, or Deitsch, has traditionally been central to these gatherings, and participants may pay a small fine for speaking English. Quarryville’s ceremony is therefore both a weather-lore event and a preservation of regional language and customs.