The Winter Carnival of QuŽbec
Le Carnaval de QuŽbec
CBC Newsmagazine
Broadcast Date: March 4, 1956
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-517-2520/life_society/quebec_carnival/clip1
In 1956, one year after residents revive the Quebec Winter
Carnival from its 19th-century roots, organizers double the event's budget. The
extraordinary success of last year's carnival means there's extra money to
spend on fireworks, a 15th-century costume ball and three mammoth parades. This
year the carnival draws a quarter of a million merrymakers. CBC cameras catch
huge displays of their jollity Đ a dog derby, street dances and coureurs de
bois cavorting. These are the last days
before Lent's reticence so everything is big: a massive Bonhomme snow sculpture
and huge crowds watching a canoe race on the St. Lawrence River. Skilled
oarsmen in waders and flannels trudge through the water's broken ice slabs and
hop into their vessels. Will the Lachance brothers take the race's $500 prize
again this year?
Francophone pioneers
held a similar winter carnival in early colonial times. During final
celebrations before Lenten fast, they feasted on rabbit and venison and drank
mead and ale. Le Carnaval de QuŽbec first
began in 1894. 
