When I first heard about Quebec holding their carnival during February, I thought "how genious!" When most places have their carnival in the Springtime near Mardi Gras, Quebec gets all the tourists to come into the city during the slowest month of the year for tourism. What a great way to make money. But that's only part of the story. As I've gotten to know many Canadians here, they tell me they like winter. One of the coolest things about Canadians is when the weather gets cold, they don't whine about how much it sucks and how they wish could move to some warmer state. Instead, they actually go outside and have fun. When I ride the bus every morning and evening, I see people outside cross-country skiing at parks and athletic fields. The And there are runners on the sidewalks around the city. The outdoor skating rinks are full in the late afternoons. People are strolling the streets with friends. People aren't hiding inside, afraid of getting pneumonia or of slipping and falling on ice. This time of year, it's all about ice. Ice is a good thing. All over the city are fun ice sculptures to celebrate winter and Carnaval. Here are a few for your enjoyment. :-)
Last Friday night, I went with a bunch of my classmates to Carnaval near the old city. The Carnival lasts for over two weeks. Before we could go, we had to buy our passes ($12). Your "Ticket" is an ornament that your tie to the zipper on your jacket. This year it has a bonnehomme de naige (Snowman) on it and a disco ball over him. He looks like he's doing a John Travolta move from Saturday Night Fever. The slogan for this year's carnival is "Le Carnaval Vous Fait Danser!" (The Carnival Makes You Dance!) My roommates ran into this festive pair. These guys were wearing all of their passes for every year since the Carnaval began.
Just inside the gate were sculptures made of snow, illuminated for the night. Artists come to Quebec from around the world to make snow sculptures for Carnaval. Then, they have competions. The artists were out there carving in front of spotlights by night. One artist from France was making a sculture of an enormous hare standing on top of tortoises. He had the bushiest mustache I've ever seen. It had small icecles hanging off the ends. He'd been out there a bit too long! He was a little embarrased about the ice on his face as he talked to us :-)
Next ,we passed 2 ice slides that look like rather straight Luge courses. Men & women were going down them on their sleds. There were taller snow slides in the distance. Then, we passed people in their bathing suits and winter hats sitting outside in giant hot tubs, in the snow. I'd hate to have to get out of one of those to get a towel! As we approached our final destination, there was a tent with a Bistro inside. In front of it was a place where people were drinking red drinks out of glasses made of ice. This has become a tradition for Carnaval.
After taking in the sights, we walked into the midst of a crowd of about 1,000 people to watch feux d'artifice (fireworks). That was to kick off the Soiree with a hip Quebecois band up on the big stage.
Most of the crowd were wearing their thick mittens, snowpants and Sorrel-type boots. Some people had colorfull winter "jester" hats for the festival. Meanwhile, all the tourists, like me, were freezing our butts off in our gloves, jeans and long johns. The band played awesome hard rock. People sang along in French. The crowd was jumping around to the music and cheering. You can't really clap with your mittens on, right? This is how they do it!!
Next ,we passed 2 ice slides that look like rather straight Luge courses. Men & women were going down them on their sleds. There were taller snow slides in the distance. Then, we passed people in their bathing suits and winter hats sitting outside in giant hot tubs, in the snow. I'd hate to have to get out of one of those to get a towel! As we approached our final destination, there was a tent with a Bistro inside. In front of it was a place where people were drinking red drinks out of glasses made of ice. This has become a tradition for Carnaval.
Most of the crowd were wearing their thick mittens, snowpants and Sorrel-type boots. Some people had colorfull winter "jester" hats for the festival. Meanwhile, all the tourists, like me, were freezing our butts off in our gloves, jeans and long johns. The band played awesome hard rock. People sang along in French. The crowd was jumping around to the music and cheering. You can't really clap with your mittens on, right? This is how they do it!!
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