Had a groundhog stirred from his sleep on Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday morning, he would not have seen his shadow, presaging a short time before spring. Cynthia Riggs was more concerned about the ice out on the landscape and roads on Wednesday morning when she woke up. For her this was a big social day, when a lot of her friends and townspeople were coming for a party.

A very big party.

For 23 years, Ms. Riggs has hosted a Groundhog Day celebration potluck at her home on the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road. On this winter day, in fact, Ms. Riggs was hosting three events at her 18th century house. There was a Wednesday poetry gathering at her house in the afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m., the celebration potluck from 5 to 7 p.m. and a writers’ group afterwards set to run from 7 to 9 p.m.

On Wednesday morning, before the day really got going, Ms. Riggs confessed that really there is not much preparation needed for these three events — even the big Groundhog Day party. She said she had no plans to prepare food, as most of it is prepared by the guests. She merely provides the welcome and puts out fresh tablecloths on an assortment of different tables. “My mother said, you only clean up after everyone has left,” she said.

The idea of the Groundhog Day potluck began with a simple question. In 1988, Ms. Riggs had just moved back to the Vineyard to live with her mother, Dionis Coffin Riggs, after running a tugboat company in Washington, D.C. She was a tugboat captain and a former sailing instructor for the Annapolis Sailing School. She had done two trans-Atlantic crossings in a 32-foot O’Day sailboat. “Good thing we had good weather,” she said wryly.

But back to the question. “I asked my mother, who is that living across the road? My mother said she didn’t know,” Ms. Riggs recalled. As they discussed it a little more, it became disconcerting to both of them. “She was horrified she didn’t know all her neighbors,” Ms. Riggs said.

So daughter Cynthia suggested this: “Let us have a gathering of our neighbors, going from our house out three houses in every direction.”

The event was a success. A year later, they expanded the invitations out to five houses in every direction. It was a potluck. People brought food.

Ms. Riggs said: “The Vineyard does potluck right. They bring the best food, the highest quality.” And when it is over, “they take their dishes with them,” she said.

Along the way, the party began to take on its own personality. “What is nifty is that this has become the kickoff of the West Tisbury political season,” Ms. Riggs said. Candidates running for elected office come to the party carrying their nomination papers — no problem getting the necessary 25 signatures to get on the ballot. General wisdom has it that if you can’t fill your nomination papers at Cynthia Riggs’s party, you may want to rethink your decision to run for office.

An author who writes mystery novels and has two books coming out this year, Ms. Riggs also hosted 150 shows on MVTV called On Island Writing which concluded three years ago. In 2007, she did 150 made-for-television shows called Our Town, West Tisbury.

She is known for her salon-style gatherings of artists, writers and musicians at Cleaveland House, her historic home on the West Tisbury-Edgartown Road.

“This house lends itself to these kind of events. People can sit in the parlor. They can stand in the room. They can go around and there is another corner,” Ms. Riggs said.

The house was built in 1750 by James Athearn. “Jim Athearn of Morning Glory Farm is my third cousin, once removed, I think,” Ms. Riggs said. For its day, the house was described as having tall ceilings. “They used to call it The Mansion,” she said. There are paintings on the walls and furniture in every room from an earlier Vineyard era. The floors are wide plank pine. A sun-bleached swordfish bill sits on a table in the hall. Ms. Riggs’s great-grandfather was Capt. James Cleaveland, a whaler. Her mother, Dionis Coffin Riggs, wrote a historical novel depicting the family story of whaling titled From Off Island, published in 1940. The house reeks of history and good reading. There are books in almost every room.

“They used to say the house has good vibes,” Ms. Riggs said. “Now they say the house has good feng shui.”

Six hours later, Ms. Riggs was busy greeting visitors streaming through the door for her Groundhog Day gathering. The dining room table was piled high with all kinds of homemade food. The smell of freshly baked cookies wafted through the rooms.

The guests included writers, friends and a long list of West Tisbury’s current and former politicians. A rumor went around the party that the selectmen’s meeting, just down the road at the town hall, was hurrying through its agenda as board members were hoping to get to the gathering.

Two of the four fireplaces in the house had roaring fires going on an icy February night. Glasses of wine and cranberry juice were passed around.

“This feels like a party at home,” said William Marks of Edgartown.

“There is not a writer on the Island, who hasn’t somehow come in contact with Cynthia,” said Judith Campbell of Oak Bluffs.

“The three events went well,” Ms. Riggs said yesterday morning. “They all went wonderfully and it all fitted nicely.”