Around the Year & Across the Pond

Here in Calgary, spring has almost sprung. A few days of sunshine, and then mornings of frost seem to rotate these days. Last week, there were lots of holidays, but not particularly unique to Canada. There was the Jewish holiday of Passover, the Christian holiday of Easter, and the Muslim holiday of Ramadan is still ongoing.  I was trying to reflect on how Canada might do these events in a uniquely Canadian way, and I found the Bunny Bonspiel! Located just an hour away from me in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, Easter long weekend has been marked by a Curling tournament since the early 1900s.  Wait, what is curling? Curling is a really fun sport (if you have good balance on pebbled ice!) in which stones or curling rocks are slid on ice towards a bullseye. To help the rock reach its goal, teammates sweep with brooms to reduce friction. Although curling is played around the world, Canadians play curling more than anyone else, and even made a Canadian comedy movie about our love for thi...

  In March, there are lots of activities happening in Canada, and many adapted and adopted from other cultures. The Hindu festival of Holi was just this week, the Persian New Year of Nowruz will be soon on March 20, but the biggest even in most cities will be St. Patrick's Day, in which everyone will green plastic hats and beads, drink green beer or green McDonald's milkshakes, and eat corned beef and hash.  But an event that happens this month that is (nearly) uniquely Canadian is the Maple Sugar Bush Festivals, also known as Maple Syrup Festivals. In most of Eastern Canada, the temperatures are starting to rise just a bit, so that the sap in maple tress is starting to flow. Through tapping the trees (putting a faucet right in the trunk of the tree), liquid, sweet sap will drip out. Historically, this diluted sap would be carried in metal buckets or pails and brought to a large black cauldron where it would be boiled down.    Boiling the maple sap makes it much swee...