Winterlude in Ottawa, One of the Largest Winter Holidays in North America

Ottawa is one of the coldest capitals in the world. The city has a prolonged winter period which lasts six months. In the cold weather, if one doesn’ t spend his free time for a walk outside, the odds of depression will increase dramatically. In order to bring a bright color to the bleak environment, the annual Winterlude carnival has been held since 1979. It encourages people to go out in the long winter and see a bit more of others.

Winterlude is a winter festival in Ottawa as well as one of the largest winter holidays in North America. Held in every February, the event, which includes skiing show, ice sculpture exhibition,

sleigh activities, icebreaker trip etc, lasts three weeks.

Built at the beginning of 1800s, Rideau Canal, which stretches 202km, had been considered as the engineering and technological miracle in the 1800s. Whenever winter comes, the place becomes “the world’ s longest skating rink” . On both banks of the canal are parks in which the works of international ice sculpture masters are exhibited. The transparent ice sculptures, both crystal and remarkably eye-catching, are impressive. During the festival, numerous snow sculptures can be seen in streets and lanes.

Take a saunter in the lanes and byways, and you think you’ ve come to the zoo, where tigers, lions, monkeys, pandas and the blurring images of animals can be found. In addition, there are music performances and fireworks show, which rock the city of ice and snow. During Winterlude, the city becomes a veritable carnival, where people’ s enthusiasm bursts out in the coldest weather in winter.

Tips：

Ottawa is a multi-ethnic capital city that lives up to its name. The city has so many characteristic delicacies from a variety of countries — France, Britain, Caribbean, Vietnam and India. The most representative foods of Canadian flavor are fried salmon with maple syrup and funnel cake.