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A Dartmouth Tradition: Winter Carnival
Winter Carnival began in 1910 as a field day featuring ski races, snowshoe races, and other sporting events. The creation of Fred Harris '11, founder of the Dartmouth Outing Club, Winter Carnival was even more successful the following year, when a dance was added and women students were invited from Smith, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, and other colleges.
In 1920, National Geographic dubbed Winter Carnival the “Mardi Gras of the North... staged for the delight of the friends of the students as well as for their own pleasure.” The celebration was the subject of the 1939 motion picture Winter Carnival, starring Ann Sheridan—a film perhaps best remembered for what happened offscreen. Producer Walter Wanger '15 hired Dartmouth alumnus Budd Schulberg '36 and novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald to develop a script—but fired them both for bad behavior in Hanover. Over the decades the film has achieved a certain cult status on campus and is now considered a hilarious must-see for Dartmouth students.
The theme of Winter Carnival 2008, which will be held February 7-10, is “20,000 Leagues Under the Snow.” Students can participate in the Polar Bear Swim by leaping through a hole cut in the ice of Occom Pond, participate in human dogsled races, attend screenings of Winter Carnival, see the snow sculpture unveiling, cheer on the ski team, watch various athletic competitions, attend concerts, and take in a fraternity party.
The Town of Hanover hosts an Occom Pond Party on Saturday, February 9, from noon-3 pm in the Dartmouth Outing Club house. It features ice skating, snow tubing, small ice sculptures, refreshments, and old-fashioned New England socializing. Parents are welcome!
Has Winter Carnival changed in 97 years? Absolutely. The first “Queen of the Snows” was chosen in 1923; the pageant was dropped in 1973. For decades the ski jumping competition was a huge spectator sport; Dartmouth's ski jump was torn down in the early 1990s. Nevertheless, Winter Carnival remains a legendary winter celebration and an enduring Dartmouth tradition.