World's Best Winter Festivals

Among the festivals around the world, winter festivals attract attention as the most colorful and exhilarating events and make winter days incredibly fun despite the chilling cold. There are numerous festivals that have become a tradition in our country and around the world.

 

 

 

Lasting from early winter until spring, winter festivals offer a unique experience by making the cold winter days colorful and joyful. So, if you are ready, let's take a look at the colorful world festivals taking place in the winter season.      

 

 

 

Quebec Winter Carnival

Dating back to 1894, Quebec Winter Carnival is held every year in January or February in Quebec, Canada. You can enjoy a festive-like atmosphere with giant puppets, fantastic light shows, music, projection shows, attractive costumes and more in the carnival, which is celebrated with great enthusiasm on streets covered with knee-deep snow at night.  

 

 

Bonhomme, the snowman mascot, brightens up the atmosphere at the Quebec Winter Carnival, which distinguishes from other festivals around the world with its snowman symbol. Featuring ice sculptures, canoes and crowded parades, this joyful carnival was held between February 03-12, 2023.

 

 

Sapporo Winter Festival

Sapporo Festival is held every year in February, for 7 days, in Sapporo, Japan. The way to the Sapparo Festival was prepared when the local university students built 6 huge sculptures made of snow and ice to have fun in Odori Park. This site, where the Sapporo Festival that started in 1950 is held, is protected with great care today.  

 

Those who make the sculptures voluntarily at the festival are from different countries of the world. The sculptures made during the festival, which takes place at the end of February, have a long life due to the low temperature.

 

 

 

 

Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival, a world's festival, is preparing to be held for the 40th time. Standing out for the support it provides to American Independent Cinema, Sundance Film Festival is going to be held on January 18-28, 2024. The festival started in 1978 and is held every year in Salt Lake city of Utah, United States, by the Sundance Institute, which was founded by the famous actor Robert Redford in 1981.

 

Las Fallas Festival

Las Fallas Festival, another world's festival, is celebrated in Valencia, Spain. Las Fallas Festival is included on the World Cultural Heritage List of UNESCO and held every year in March, for 5 days.

 

 

 

Based on the story telling how the festival started, San Jose, known as the patron saint of carpenters, was making toys for children. The workshop of San Jose and all the toys he made for children were destroyed by a fire. 

 

 

 

 

Every year in March, Valencians make giant puppets, called "La Falla", and then burn them to commemorate San Jose. Thousands of firefighters are on standby during this ceremony of burning puppets. The festival takes place at night with fireworks, dance shows and music.   

 

 

 

Maslenitsa Festivities

Regarded as the herald of spring, Maslenitsa Festivities started to be celebrated during the week preceding the Great Fast, called "Velikiy Post", in Russia, and offers a fun atmosphere. The last day of the festival, which dates back to pagan times and is held every year on a different date depending on the date of the Great Fast, is celebrated with great enthusiasm. 

 

 

The garden scarecrow is the symbol of Maslenitsa Festivals, where the end of winter and the arrival of spring are celebrated. The blini, a type of crepe, is the special delicacy of the festival. People asks for forgiveness from their acquaintances, loved ones and relatives for any misbehavior or sin they had done and dance and sing accompanied by Russian folk tunes on the last day of Maslenitsa celebrations, which is also called Butter Week. On the last day of this festival, which corresponds to March, the effigies of Lady Maslenitsa are burned, which is the symbol of the end of winter.   

 

Queenstown Winter Festival

Queenstown Winter Festival, another winter festival, is held in Queenstown, New Zealand. Started in 1975, this winter festival is celebrated every year in June. In New Zealand, which is situated in the Southern Hemisphere, winter begins in June and this festival is regarded as the greatest winter festival of the Southern Hemisphere.

 

 

Ice hockey games, music events, snowboarding, jet boat tours, glacier climbing by helicopter, laser and firework shows take place during the Queenstown Festival, one of the best winter festivals in the world. Since the weather is warm in June in the North Hemisphere, attending the Queenstown Winter Festival and enjoying the snow is regarded as an interesting and joyful experience for those who live in the Northern Hemisphere. Our article Must-Visit Places in Thailand can be inspiring for those who love traveling and exploring new places.