We’ve had a strange winter so far here in Toronto. A couple very cold spells, some quite mild spells, but these days the average is about -5 degrees C. What makes it strange is that we’ve had almost no snow! While so many parts of North America seems to be getting hammered with Snowmageddon and Snowpocalypse, I’m starting to get a bit jealous! I think we’d like at least one big snowfall before spring.

Last weekend, Mehmet and I made our way to Nathan Philips Square to see what was happening with the city’s Winterfest celebrations.

This is the skating rink at the square. Remember when we went to see the Christmas lights in December? That was here.

We decided we should come back one day in the next couple of weeks to do some skating. Mehmet really wants to learn, and me… well maybe I can get over my memories of cold, uncomfortable feet in tight skates… just for once. Seriously, my feet were always cold and pinched when I skated as a kid! And I have small feet!

Still… it looks fun, doesn’t it.

What really drew our attention was these fire pillars! They are part of an art exhibit by a group called The Flaming Lotus Girls. From their website:

The Flaming Lotus Girls are a female-driven, volunteer-based group of artists who have been making kinetic, mechanical fire art since 2000. Our work stands at the intersection of sculpture, kinetics, robotics, pyrotechnics, and electronic technology. We create interactive large-scale fire installations that engage viewers and invite them to become part of the art.

It was such an interesting display! As we stood among the columns (there were two groups of them, with fences around each group), suddenly there was a ‘whooosh’ and one of the pillars would have a rush of fire. Then ‘whoosh!’ ‘whoosh’ … all around us, unpredictable.

Those two buildings are the City Hall.

In the middle of the two groups of pillars stood this large steel sculpture that kids were climbing onto and over. Then we realized that they were pushing some funky-shaped metal buttons. Each button corresponded to one pillar. Push the button, and you see a rush of fire. Fun!

Each pillar was connected to a gas line.

Now these guys are dressed for the weather!

There were some other displays too, with a focus on 1800s Canada. This man builds birch bark canoes with the materials that early pioneers and aboriginal Canadians used, and he had a few on display.

I really love canoes (and canoeing)!

We also saw some ice sculptures, but they were not very impressive in my opinion. One day we would love to go to the real Winter festivals in Ottawa or Quebec City!

These tipis had storytelling by native Canadians.  We didn’t go in because there was quite a long line-up.

There was also  a demonstration of some favourite games of early Voyageurs. On the log in bottom right of the picture volunteers could try this activity: Two people sit cross-legged on the log, facing each other, then they try to knock each other off using the cloth sacks filled with other soft material.

There were also some tug-of-war demonstrations and audience participation.

Mmmm!!!

This man first poured some hot maple syrup on the plate of snow…

Then as it immediately started to cool down, he rolled it up on a stick.

Another traditional Canadian snack – Beavertails. These are basically fried dough pastries shaped like a beaver tail. I’ve never had one, actually.

There were these little ‘warming stations’ around the square, where people could stand around a fire and warm up. I thought it was quite funny that they were surrounded by Asians. Poor people, it must take a long time for some of them to get accustomed to our winters!

Just before we left, we watched a performance of Aboriginal dancing. The dancing accompanied a narrated story about ‘The Origin of Fire”. We couldn’t see much from where we were – there were lots of others also interested! – but look, now you clearly can see the sculpture with the buttons that controlled the fire.

At strategic parts in the story, the drum beats would get more intense and then suddenly, “WHOOSH”… all the columns exploded in fire.

Too bad there wasn’t more snow to make it feel more wintery. But I guess the cold temperatures helped take care of that. Before we know it, spring will be here, and the warm weather festivals will commence.