Winter Carnival: A bygone mid-winter celebration

For many years, Winter Carnival was a mid-winter campus celebration featuring concerts, comedy shows, dances, the crowning of a winter carnival queen and, of course, the construction of elaborate snow sculptures.

But as the 1970s dawned, student interest in Winter Carnival waned. Like many other campus traditions, it seemed quaint and outdated and it breathed its last in 1971. In 1988, a student group tried to revive the carnival and organized a snow sculpture contest, but their hopes of an annual event melted away.

Still, in its heyday, Winter Carnival was a lively celebration that drew a great deal of undergraduate participation, particularly among the sororities, fraternities and student organizations who fashioned intricate, artistic and often irreverent figures in the snow.

Photos courtesy of Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library

February 1, 2008.