Winter Carnival Theme

Quebec’s Flag
Capital	Quebec City
Largest City	Montreal
Official Language	French
Confederation	July 1, 1867
Land Area	1,365,128 km2 (2nd) 527,079 mi2
Population (2008)	7,750,504 (2nd)

The Quebec Winter Carnival (or Carnaval de Québec) is an annual winter carnival that takes place in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The festival typically starts on the last Friday of January or the first Friday of February and continues for 17 days. With close to one million participants, it has grown to become the largest winter celebration in the world.

The habitants of New France, now Quebec, had a rowdy tradition of getting together just before Lent to eat, drink and be merry. Think Mardi Gras in winter and you have an idea of how big a deal the Quebec Winter Carnival is. No sense in fighting the cold—embrace and celebrate it!

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 Québec, using humbler means and involving smaller numbers of individuals. The Carnival 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 and now includes cultural events and participatory sports as well as traditional spectator sports.

Bonhomme is the official ambassador of the festivities, a large snowman sporting a red cap, black buttons and a ceinture fléchée, who is filling in for Marjorie in this theme.

The opening and closing ceremonies take place at the Ice Palace (represented in the title bar of the theme) before thousands of participants and the mayor of Quebec.

Members

Now, time for a quick shout out to everyone on Atlas Quest from Canada!

Letterboxing Cities

Here are all of the cities in Canada we’ve hit with letterboxes!