01.10.08 kulturnatib

Winterlude

Last week I wrote about snow and how in some places, notably in Dubai, winter is no longer a prerequisite for having some or a lot of that cold, white, fluffy stuff that actually stays that way or freezes that way only in the imagination.

Actually, snow melts and in the course of melting it becomes slush, muddy and really yucky stuff. This, of course, does not figure in the imagination, especially for those whom a White Christmas is more dreamed about than the Silent Night is celebrated.

Here there is definitely a winter -- fiercer than in many places -- and there is snow and, as my luck would have it, probably more since I arrived if temperature and snow have any correspondence. The newspapers have already announced this to be the coldest in the last fifteen years days into the official start of winter.

But, to my surprise, while crossing on foot along Pont Alexandra or Alexandra Bridge that spans the Ottawa River and connecting the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, I was greeted by the sight that, when I asked what it was, made me realize that sometimes even winter alone is not enough.

Amids the expanse of white snow that have been dumped by two snow storms and a few more regular snow falls, including a part of the Ottawa River which, at that point, is almost entirely iced over, were fountains of white powder arching high and onto a growing mound of more powder.

I had never seen those before, but, even while I asked, I guessed that they were snow making machines.

Although less fascinating for the comparison, I imagine snow making machines to be somewhat like those machines, of which there is less and less you see in the city, around elementary schools, that spew out colored webs of sugar into a circular metal drum that is then collected with a bamboo stick into a sticky bouquet of pure childhood delight.

With snow making machines, however, there is only whiteness from the barrel of a more prosaic piece electrical equipment that bears a resemblance to an extremely fat but short cannon.

Little did I know that these machines were the advance cavalry in what is billed as North America's greatest winter celebration; Winterlude or Bal de Neige.

Every February since 1979 the National Capital Commission of Canada hosts this festival that features the culture and activities of snow and ice in spectacular proportions that brings in visitors from all over that in 2005 was estimated to be two hundred thousand shy of a million.

At the Jacques Cartier Park where the snow making machines were will be the largest snow playground in the continent, where kids can romp and slide on more than 30 giant snow slides. Along with these will be a variety shows, performances and a whole slew of games.

Not far will be the showcase of ice and snow sculptures of which many will be the works of international ice and snow carvers pitting their skills against each other and a material that, more than any other, embodies the science and the mystery of the transformations of energy and matter.

For the sporty, there is the longest natural ice skating rink in the world. Every winter and especially with the Winterlude, the Rideau Canal becomes the Rideau Canal Skateway. A 7 kilometer, 4-car lane wide iced track.

This is the site of the Winterlude Triathlon, the Bedzzz Annual Bed Race – a fund raiser involving pushing hospital beds across the ice -- skating demonstrations and other ice-skating activities. This year, too, it will be the site of the festival opening kick-off night that pays tribute to the 400th birthday of Quebec City, the oldest European settlement in North America.

I have always been told that landing here in winter is no red carpet event. It could be worse and more, I was warned.

Now, learning about this festival has made me think twice. They could be right, as snow and very cold do go hand in hand. But, they can also be wrong as, then, it could, actually, be quite nice.