Quebec Winter Carnival

Bonhomme Carnaval is the ambassador of Carnaval de Québec

The Quebec Winter Carnival (or Carnaval de Québec), held yearly in Quebec City, Canada, is the biggest winter carnival in the world. The festival typically starts on the last Friday of January or the first Friday of February and it continues for 17 days, usually with close to one million participants every year.

This year will be the 54th annual & also the 400th anniversy of Quebec.

Activities and Attractions

• Bonhomme Carnaval is the official ambassador of the festival, a large snowman sporting a red cap and a ceinture fléchée.

• The opening and closing ceremonies take place in the ice palace. At the opening, before thousands of festival guests, the mayor of Quebec provides the official ambassador — a snowman named Bonhomme Carnaval - with the key to the city; at the closing, he returns the key before disappearing. These evening ceremonies also include musical performances and fireworks.

• A large ice palace has been built every year since 1955 to house the Bonhomme Carnaval and so that he might host the many carnaval guests who are free to visit. Originally built at Place d'Youville, a public square in the old town, it has been constructed in front of the Quebec Parliament since 1973. Early palaces were built out of ice, then from 9000 tons of compacted snow between 1979 and 1992, and then again from ice ever since. Past castles have been as much as 50 metres wide and 20 metres high, requiring 15 men to work for two months.

Ice sculptures in progress

• The international ice sculpture event has been, since 1973, a test of skill for teams from around the world. Groups from warmer climates are far more used to sculpting from sand and must adapt to working with ice, but all teams produce monumental pieces to be judged by the public and an official jury.

• The dog agility contest, starting in 2000, allows as many as dog owners to demonstrate the skill of their pets in a large snow-covered course.

• The canoe race between Québec and Lévis, Quebec are part of a long tradition dating back as far as 1894, and held each year since 1955. The 3.2 kilometre course across the freezing Saint Lawrence River requires an enormous level of skill and endurance, particularly when large sections may be frozen and team members get to pull their canoes along the ice.

• A 6 kilometre dog sled race begins in the few streets of old town left covered with snow, and finishes at the Château Frontenac.

• The snow bath is a somewhat strange tradition in which bathing-suited participants bathe in snow in subzero winter temperatures before returning to saunas to warm up. There are only 75 participant slots, which are reserved as much as a month in advance.

• Two night parades take place on weekends with numerous illuminated floats and hundreds of thousands of spectators.

• Other attractions include art displays, a public ball, and a western breakfast provided by the city of Calgary.

History

The first large scale Carnival was held in 1894, more or less in continuation of traditional Mardi Gras festivities which had been popular everywhere in Quebec, using humbler means and involving smaller numbers of individuals. The Carnaval was interrupted by World War I, the Great Depression of 1929 and World War II. It was held sporadically between 1945 and 1954.

The style of the carnival has changed considerably over the last twenty years, with spectator sports, such as special basketball and hockey games, to cultural events and participatory sports.

See also

• List of Quebec festivals
• Quebec City Summer Festival

External links

• Carnaval de Québec - Official Site