As a Canadian, I join naturally to the Danish/Norwegian phrase Hygge, which is about embracing chilly climate with cozy traditions. Winter festivals provide the pleasure of hygge, within the many ways in which they’re celebrated.
I really like the season a lot that I really don’t love touring to hotter climes throughout our winter. Warm is simple and positively nice. Traveling south within the winter makes the return to chilly tough. It might sound unusual that I might have problem getting again into the winter spirit that I really like, however I do. Worse, it makes me really feel like I missed the season solely.
I do know; like everybody, I’m a bundle of contradictions.
So what’s it about winter journey? I really like crisp snow that’s solely doable when it is actually chilly. I really like the blue skies and vivid days with the solar bouncing off the white floor. I like being out within the chilly, cozy in my parka, carrying my favourite down mitts. I like watching a blizzard from the heat of my dwelling with a cup of tea. I just like the scent of chilly! I really like the crunch of true chilly beneath foot. I like it all, together with winter festivals.
Festivals are an incredible choice for winter journey if you’re going solo. They provide numerous enjoyable and outside actions to observe, take part in, and revel in. Below are recommendations on get pleasure from them and some festivals you may need to attend.
You may also need to learn Winter Solo Travel: Destinations, Planning, and Packing and A Winter Road Trip Alone: Essential Tips.
Going to Festivals Alone Is a Social Affair
Summer, spring, fall, and winter: I’ve been to festivals by myself at each time of the yr. I’ve at all times discovered that they’re an incredible choice for solo vacationers. Here’s get pleasure from winter festivals solo.
- Join in, festivals are group affairs. Festivals deliver individuals collectively to honor long-held traditions and shared group values. Join in and you will expertise the true tradition of your vacation spot. If you are in your house nation you may see the small variations that make every metropolis distinctive.
- Have a seat and meet new individuals. Festivals are busy and pleasant. There are too many individuals at festivals for everybody to have their very own desk. Shared tables for experiencing gastronomic delights are anticipated. Have a seat and meet somebody new.
- Enjoy a distinct musical style. Very typically the music at winter festivals harkens again to conventional tunes from centuries previous. It might not be your ordinary listening pleasure nevertheless it’s typically toe-tapping, spoon-slapping enjoyable.
- Try new actions. Have you ever been kick-sledding? What about dogsledding? Snowshoeing? There are so many winter actions to attempt for the primary time. Festivals are protected environments to provide one thing your first go.
- Enjoy doing belongings you’ve forgotten to do. Has it been some time since you’ve got been tobogganing? The slide at Quebec City’s Winter Carnival, and most winter festivals for that matter, is loopy enjoyable. A competition is an ideal time to get pleasure from these actions you may have, for one cause or one other, left in your previous.
- Soak up the vitality. Everyone goes to a competition to have an excellent time. People are completely happy. They are usually extra energetic and open to new experiences. Tap into that vitality and have enjoyable.
Next up, a number of winter festivals so as to add to your listing.
Festival du Voyageur Solo, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Established in 1970, the Festival du Voyageur celebrates conventional French Canadian meals, music, and heritage.
Saint-Boniface, Winnipeg’s French neighborhood, is the house of the competition. I arrived and, naturally, took a second to get oriented. I needed to find out how the Festival labored, what occasions have been deliberate for the day, and the place the most effective meals was. I did all of that with a BeaverTail in hand.
Hmm. I believe I ought to make clear. A BeaverTail is deep-fried dough made with entire wheat flour and pulled by hand to resemble the lengthy, flat tail of a beaver. (The beaver makes use of its tail for a lot of functions however, most apparently, it is used to slap the water to offer a warning to different beavers when it feels threatened.) The BeaverTail pastry is historically topped with cinnamon and sugar however quite a lot of candy and savory toppings at the moment are provided. It’s a should at the very least as soon as a winter.
I checked out the ice sculptures first however handed an incredible day attending three live shows, sitting by a hearth chatting with different competition goers, and watching youngsters on the toboggan run and sled races. There was lots to do to fill three days!
Read about different issues I did throughout my journey to Winnipeg:
Quebec City Winter Carnival Solo
I went to the Carnaval de Québec many instances throughout college however, a number of years in the past, I went to the competition solo for the primary time.
Carnaval de Québec is taken into account the biggest winter competition on the earth. Alongside a lineup of worldwide artists are conventional actions comparable to:
- Ice canoe races. The St. Lawrence River is large, quick flowing, and does not freeze utterly. Dozens of groups race canoes both pushing the canoe alongside the ice or paddling it by means of icy water.
- Human foosball. Kids are strapped into place as if they’re the spinning gamers on a foosball desk and the sport begins, one staff towards one other. It’s hysterical to observe.
- The Ice Castle. Unlike the ice sculptures that one usually walks round, on this case you might be strolling by means of the sculpture with two-dimensional carvings within the partitions.
- Toboggan Run. This ice run is beside the Chateau Frontenac with an incredible view of the river.
- Slapshot apply. Kids attempt their arms at getting the puck into what would usually be a wood-burning range, a a lot smaller goal than a hockey web.
Most of the Carnival takes place in and across the outdated metropolis of Quebec which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage web site in 1985. If you haven’t but been, it’s the most European expertise you can find in North America. There is the Lower Town centered across the Place Royale and harbor, and the Upper Town which incorporates the Citadel. Just strolling round this metropolis in winter is an excellent expertise. Add the Carnival, and you’ve got an additional particular vacation spot.
Don’t miss taking the ferry throughout the river to Levis so that you just get a view of Quebec from the river.
Winterlude Winter Festival in Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario and Quebec
Ottawa, being Canada’s capital, has a particular authorities physique known as the National Capital Commission. Their job is to make the town, in actual fact the area that stretches from Ottawa into Quebec, lovely, full of life, and enjoyable for all Canadians. Their premier occasion within the winter is Winterlude.
Winterlude is a competition of meals, music, ice sculpture, and skating. Held for 2 weeks in February every year, you might be fairly effectively assured that the Rideau Canal might be frozen and ready for skating. This rink is one other UNESCO World Heritage Site and nearly 7 km lengthy. It can be my excuse for by no means having discovered cease correctly on skates.
Rather than inform you all about Winterlude, I’m going to let Nadine present you.
More Winter Festivals for Solo Fun
Naturally, there are various extra thrilling winter festivals. Here are a number of on my listing.
Canada:
- Winter Festival of Lights, Niagara Falls. The falls come alive with ice and lights within the winter.
- Toonik Tyme, Iqaluit, Nunavut. After a winter of 24-hour darkness, Iqaluit celebrates the return of the solar in April.
- Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous, Whitehorse, Yukon. Whitehorse fights the cabin fever that winter could cause with their annual February competition.
- Frostival, Fredericton, New Brunswick. This competition runs for 3 weekends and consists of many occasions together with the Maritime Cup for cross-country snowboarding and the Shivering Songs competition.
- World Pond Hockey Championships, Plaster Rock, New Brunswick. Teams from world wide compete on a number of rinks. If you are a hockey fan, or only a winter competition fan, that is the true deal.
Winter Festivals within the United States:
- Fur Rendezvous, Anchorage, Alaska. Join a standard competition that dates again to 1935. Like the Rendezvous in Whitehorse, it is about breaking apart the winter and avoiding cabin fever.
- Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, Saranac, New York. You can take part in typical winter sports activities like Nordic snowboarding and ice skating, however there are additionally some uncommon competitions like final Arctic frisbee and a ladies’s frying pan toss.
- Frozen Dead Guy Days, Nederland, Colorado. Yes, that is proper. This competition has an attention-grabbing historical past that has resulted in barely morbid actions like coffin races and a parade of hearses.
- SnowFest, North Lake Tahoe, California. This is “a ten-day mountain Mardi Gras celebration with nearly 100 events spread throughout North Lake Tahoe, including a Mardi Gras party, a luau, a dog pull, a dog costume contest, fireworks, several parades, snow sculpture and ice carving competitions.”
You’ll additionally need to learn pack for winter enjoyable right here: Winter Solo Travel: Destinations, Planning, and Packing.
Last up to date: thirteenth November, 2024