LEXINGTON
Winter won't last much longer, if Lil' Bit the prognosticating pig is to be believed.
Just before dawn, about 30 people gathered in Lexington for the Sixth Annual Groundhawg's Day. It is the city's variation on the Groundhog Day tradition, which is most closely associated with Punxsutawney, Pa. and the actor Bill Murray.
Rather than use a groundhog, Lexington instead turns to a pig to predict whether we'll have an early spring or not. Lil' Bit is a seven-year-old potbellied pig who has been making these forecasts since the first year of the event, back in 2005. And she has been right four out of five times so far, said Newell Clark, the president of the board of directors for Uptown Lexington Inc., which holds the event each year.
Lexington mayor John Walser was among the local dignitaries on hand this morning.
"I've been involved since the beginning," he said. "I thought it was a little a hokey at first, and it still may be, but barbecue is our story."
"It's a nice event, a good way to showcase Lexington," said Max Walser, chairman of the Davidson County Board of Commissioners.
Dressed in a pink hat with matching gloss on her front hooves, Lil' Bit emerged shortly after 7:30 a.m.
Most of the event was held indoors, thanks to the cold drizzle, but the doors were opened long enough for Lil' Bit to trot outside.
"She sure didn't see her shadow," Mayor Pro-Tem Larry Beck, the official "voice of Lil' Bit," said afterward.
Sid Proctor, the owner of Weathervane Winery and an amateur meteorologist, said that Lil' Bit was being too optimistic and a bit, well, pig-headed.
"We'll have a real winter this year," he predicted. "Keep the snow shovels ready."
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