{"id":15938,"date":"2016-02-05T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=15938"},"modified":"2020-03-26T04:11:57","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T08:11:57","slug":"an-interlude-to-winterlude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2016\/02\/05\/an-interlude-to-winterlude\/","title":{"rendered":"An interlude to Winterlude"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dog sled run at the Snowflake Kingdom<\/p><\/div>\n

This time of year, gray clouds and slushy streets almost make the earth and sky look the same color.\u00a0 In Ottawa and Gatineau, the solution for lifting gloomy mid-winter attitudes is Winterlude\u2014the 37th<\/sup> annual winter carnival celebration started on January 29 and continues until February 15.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Winterlude is completely family-friendly, and almost totally free. It is a celebration of Canadian identity through winter\u2014the season most generally associated with Canada, notwithstanding the weak one we\u2019re having this year. We\u2019re mostly a winter country. Our most northern settlement is a military base only about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the North Pole, Joseph-Armand Bombardier invented the snowmobile in Quebec, and at least three Canadian towns regularly feud about which is the birthplace of hockey.<\/p>\n

Winter, and both its beauty and brutality, is one of those common bonds we share with many Americans, including our North Country neighbors in New York. I saw evidence of the transnational bond of snow and ice on the first day of Winterlude through the number of New York and Vermont license plates on cars parked near the events.<\/p>\n