Today is a traditional holiday of sorts in rural Pennsylvania. It’s the first day of firearms deer hunting season. Today through Dec. 8, licensed hunters are allowed to take one antlered deer and, starting Saturday one antlerless deer or more, provided he or she has a permit for each antlerless deer taken, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Please use caution. This is a time of fun and tradition. It’s an annual rite of season to gather and socialize with friends and family at hunting camps, and it would be naive to think an alcoholic drink or two might be shared there. Just be safe. There will be an estimated 700,000 hunters in Pennsylvania’s woods and fields today and this week, handling real firearms, and risking real accidents involving real blood and pain.

Statistically speaking, you’re more likely to get hurt falling from a tree stand than being shot by another hunter. About 40 hunters a year suffer traumatic injuries from falls out of tree stands in Pennsylvania. Game Commission officials urge hunters to wear a safety harness when hunting from a tree stand.

That said, please have a successful hunt. Herd management is more important to Pennsylvania now than it ever has been. Some of us are turned off, others turned on, by the sight of a deer carcass tagged and placed in the bed of a pickup; but either is preferable to hordes of deer bounding in front of our cars on the highway on winter nights. Our auto insurance companies heartily agree with this sentiment.

Here’s an interesting, relevant statistic: In most areas, hunters may take only antlered deer during the first five days, then antlerless and antlered seasons run concurrently from Saturday, Dec. 1, to the season’s close.

In 2017, that first Saturday of deer season — when does as well as bucks could be taken — there were more total deer harvested than on the first day of the season. That has never happened before in Pennsylvania, according to Game Commission officials.

Maybe it shows a changing attitude about hunting, one less concerned about the trophy and more in tune with stewardship of a resource. Maybe that’s why a record amount of venison was donated to Pennsylvania’s food banks last season. The nonprofit charity Hunters Sharing the Harvest says hunters last year donated a record 3,337 deer, yielding 130,930 pounds of meat and providing 667,400 meals for individuals and families in need.

It’s mind-boggling that plentiful deer herds attracted the first indigenous people and colonial settlers to Pennsylvania. The same herd draws hundreds of thousands to our state’s wilderness, still feeds hundreds of thousands of appreciative people.

That’s a tradition to uphold with pride. Now, go get your deer.