The great American tradition of

Groundsheep Day!

Groundsheep Day is an annual midwinter festival that began in the mid-1980's at GE's Advanced Technology Laboratory in Moorestown, NJ.

Shearson

Every year on February 2nd, ATL engineers would awaken the fabled groundsheep from his hibernation and bring him outside to act as a small, stuffed, funny-looking meteorologist. Legend held that if the groundsheep saw his shadow, there would be six more weeks of winter. But, if he didn't see his shadow, there would be six more weeks of winter anyway, except that the engineers would start showing up to work in shorts and summer shirts and basically live in denial until Spring really arrived or they froze to death, whichever came first.

Groundsheep Day went on a 15-year hiatus when the beast's keeper left the laboratories for greener, less sheep-infested pastures. But, at the urging of our friend and co-originator Tom Geigel, we resurrected the ritual in 2007 and have held it annually ever since. Check out the links below to read our eyewitness reports of the new and improved Groundsheep Day.

Groundsheep Day stories