HISTORY THROUGH OUR EYES

Jan. 11, 1979: Bonhomme brings traffic to a stop

The sight of Quebec City’s Bonhomme Carnaval stopping traffic at Ste-Catherine St. and McGill College Ave. was too quirky for one of our photographers to resist back in early 1979. Inside the snowman costume, with its joyous expression, red hat and colourful traditional ceinture fléchée, was Jacques Paradis, president of the 25th Quebec carnival, we reported on Jan. 11. He was aided by a rather serious-looking Const. Patrice Comeau and that year’s fashionable carnival duchesses. The event was staged to attract publicity for Quebec City’s winter carnival, an annual event that attracts throngs of tourists to the provincial capital to engage in a host of winter sports and activities, admire ice sculptures, blow loud plastic trumpets, drink a strong alcoholic concoction known as Caribou, and generally party. The following Saturday had been officially declared as Quebec Carnival Day in Montreal. The festival, the highest-profile of the many winter carnivals and festivals held across the province to enliven the winter months, dates from 1955, although the city had seen such events sporadically since the previous century. It has grown to be an important draw for the capital’s tourist industry. This year’s edition of the carnival runs Feb. 8-17. And these days, Bonhomme Carnaval has his own Instagram account. But some traditions remain. There are still canoe races on the St. Lawrence and an axe-throwing contest. And moderation is still recommended for the Caribou, a potent libation reputed to consist of red wine or port, hard liquor and maple syrup or sugar.