While Dartmouth's celebration of Winter Carnival will take place this weekend, similar carnivals have already been held at other colleges and more will take place throughout the season.
New England colleges in particular are known for hosting winter carnivals. During ski season, the Dartmouth ski team travels to competitions around the area at times when the host college is in the midst of its own carnival.
The five other New England schools that partake in this tradition are Bates College, Middlebury College, St. Lawrence University, the University of Vermont and Williams College.
Middlebury will be celebrating its 81st Winter Carnival this coming Feb. 26 through Feb. 28. The theme for its carnival is "The City That Never Sleeps."
The Middlebury Winter Carnival is supposedly the oldest and largest student-run winter carnival in the country, according to Middlebury students and administration. The Carnival is characterized by a fireworks show, cultural gala, and an ice show that are open to the public.
In addition to the public events arranged by the school, there is also a winter carnival board of 15 students that puts on a variety of programs each year. This year's festivities include Mardi Gras Madness, the annual talent show, a Hoe-down Throw Down Contra Dance, break dancing lessons, and a snowshoe race.
"It's our biggest winter event," Tabby Conor, student chair for Middlebury's Winter Carnival, said.
Carnegie Melon University puts on its annual Winter Gala to highlight winter. This year's theme was "Viva Las Vegas" and it featured casino games, an oxygen bar, a wedding chapel, a nightclub and an illusionist.
Bates claims to have the second oldest Winter Carnival in the country. Each year, it is kicked off by having the current Maine governor light the torch in an Olympic-style manner. The tradition was started by the then-governor Edmund Muskie in 1958, who also happened to be an alumnus of the College.
This year's torch was lit on Jan. 21.
Williams College features a snow sculpting contest and a campus-wide snowball fight every winter. Their Winter Carnival will begin Feb. 21.
The University of Chicago began their winter traditions in 1982. In an attempt at originality and to move away from the typical East Coast-style Winter Carnival, then Director of Orientation and Assistant Dean of Students Sonia Jacobson dubbed the festival "Kuviasungnerk," or "Kuvia" for short. The name comes from the Eskimo word "kanjeiko," meaning "happiness."
Kuvia is also the name of an Eskimo festival that occurred when there was an abundance of fish. It tended to result in ungoverned eating, dancing, drinking and smoking. Jacobson felt that it was a fitting name for a festival devoted to lightening the severity of Chicago winters.
The University of Chicago's Kuvia is a weeklong festival that is characterized by kangeiko. Each weekday morning for the week of Kuvia, over 100 students, faculty and staff members take part in calisthenics at 6 a.m. Afterwards, a variety of different activities are offered, from karate to ultimate frisbee to cheerleading. Kuvia concludes with a polar bear run where more than 100 unclad or scantily clad students rush across the University of Chicago's main quadrangle.
Despite the seeming popularity of such winter traditions, many colleges throughout the East Coast lack any sort of winter carnival. Schools such as Yale, Brown, MIT, Princeton and Smith all lack annual winter festivals.
