A1 Taylor, age 11, of Great Falls, Mont., for his question:

WHERE DID GROUND HOG DAY ORIGINATE?

On February 2 each year we celebrate Ground hog Day. The holiday based on a custom that people from Great Britain and Germany brought to America.

The Europeans believed that it was a time for forecasting the weather for the next six weeks. According to the legend, the ground hog, or woodchuck, awakens from his long winter sleep on February 2. He sticks his head out of his home in the ground and looks around.

If the sun is shining and the ground hog sees his shadow, he is frightened and crawls back into his hole. This, according to the legend, means that there will be six more weeks of winter weather.

However, if February 2 turns out to be a cloudy day and the ground hog cannot see his shadow, he stays out of his hole, indicating that spring weather will soon come.

As you can probably guess, science has not been able to confirm the reliability of the Ground hog Day observation ritual.