When KelownaNow, put out our story about Groundhog Day over the weekend, there was a bit of push back from some Facebook followers who are growing weary of the fabled tradition. 

"It's all a bunch of B.S." posted one reader. "How is it people still believe in this cr**p?" added another.

But with a blue sky over Kelowna's downtown, the mood was much more charitable. "It's fun and we need to keep doing it," said one pedestrian. "I'm still on board with it," said another. 

The Groundhog Day tradition began in 1887 at Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, but its roots extend further back than that. 

In the ancient Christian ritual of Candlemas, clergy would bless and distribute candles for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. In Germany, the tradition expanded to include the selection of a hedgehog or a badger as a means of predicting the weather. German settlers in Pennsylvania switched to groundhogs because they were more readily available.