Milltown Mel won’t be back for Groundhog Day 2024
It’s official! This will be the third year in a row that there will be no Milltown Mel on Groundhog Day.
Milltown Mel was the name of two groundhogs from Milltown, New Jersey, who provided winter predictions from 2009 until the second Mel’s death prior to Groundhog Day 2022.
When the most recent Milltown Mel passed away, there was not enough time to find a replacement groundhog, and so no ceremony was held that year. Last year, Mel’s wranglers made an announcement that there would again be no Mel in 2023, despite thinking they had obtained a replacement, due to some sort of “New Jersey statute.”
Now, once again, Mel’s wranglers have announced on Facebook that they have been unable to find a replacement, and there will be no Groundhog Day ceremony in 2024.
This is sad news indeed. We have to wonder if there will ever be another Milltown Mel. Perhaps the organizers need to look into alternatives, if they want to keep the tradition alive. They could switch to another animal, or use a stuffed groundhog, or perhaps even use a groundhog mascot to predict the weather.
Regardless, we hope that next year will finally see the return of Milltown’s Groundhog Day tradition, in one way or another.
Tags: groundhog day, groundhog day 2024, milltown, milltown mel