COUNTING THE DAYS!

It’s been blazing hot here in Minneapolis, like much of the rest of the country and today my mind was racing to think of those “lovely” frigid winter days that Minnesota is so well known for.  One particular day in 1992 stood out.  It was on a Saturday evening in January. My family and Vicente, a young friend from Ecuador traveled to St. Paul to experience the splendor of  the St. Paul Winter Carnival.  Vicente was used to the mild climate of Ecuador and had never experienced winter cold and snow before, let alone frigid temperatures.  I doubt that he would have come for a visit, had he known the reality of the average Minnesota winter—several weeks of below zero temperatures, especially in January.

But residents of St. Paul and Minnesota are always up for a challenge and that weekend was just another reminder of how the winter carnival originated.  In 1885 a New York reporter who had visited St. Paul during the coldest time of the year referred to it as “another Siberia, unfit for human habitation.”  That didn’t go over well with St. Paul business leaders, so they established The St. Paul Winter Carnival, to prove that St. Paul was indeed alive and thriving.  The first carnival started in 1886 and became permanent in 1946.  In more recent years ice palaces have been built, using ice from Minnesota lakes.  The first one was 106 feet high.  The 1992 palace was 166 feet high and was the largest ice structure in the world.  Eighteen thousand giant blocks of ice were used and at night there was a light show with changing colors and sound track.  It was absolutely beautiful and mesmerizing and unforgettable.  As bitterly cold as it was, I would go there again in a flash. 

If you look closely at the tallest spire, the black spot about one third from the top is actually a large fish frozen in one of the blocks of ice.

Photograph by Heinz Richter

The St. Paul Winter Carnival is unique in other ways as well. At least 350,000 visitors attend nearly every year during the week it’s held.  There’s a Royal Coronation and Grand Day Parade, as well as snow sculpting, ice sculpture carving, dogsled races, and the Torchlight Parade.  There’s even a treasure hunt for a medallion, a tradition since 1952.  The lucky individual who finds the medallion, with the help of clues provided by the St. Paul newspaper for 12 days wins nearly $10,000 and a ride in the Torchlight Parade. 

This afternoon, as the temperature reached close to 100 degrees with a dew point near 70, it was entertaining to listen to my grandchildren discuss whether they’d rather be too hot or too cold.  They both opted for the heat, which surprised me, but I didn’t have to give it much thought, maybe because I grew up in the Midwest, where snow and cold are the “norm” in winter.  I’m fascinated with the St. Paul Winter Carnival and the people who celebrate the uniqueness and beauty of that week in January.  The New York writer who called St. Paul “unfit for human habitation” in winter had no idea of the stir he created.  Over one hundred twenty-five years later the St. Paul Winter Carnival is more popular than ever.  And this morning when I stepped outside and felt the jungle-like air, I was almost counting the days until the next one.