By Student Digital Media Team member Collin Burke ’14

This weekend, students found some relief from the polar vortex with one of Bowdoin’s most beloved traditions: Winter Weekend.

Winter Weekend, a three-day extravaganza of wintry events, this year included horse-drawn carriage rides, a broomball competition, a Polar Bear Dip in frigid Maine waters, ice sculpting and plenty of warm snacks. The event is put on by Bowdoin Student Government, the Entertainment Board and Student Activities.

While 2013 marked the first time in recent memory that Winter Weekend has occurred, the event actually has a long history. References to a weekend of cold-weather proceedings date back to articles in the Bowdoin Orient from as early as the 1920s. “Winter’s Weekend” later became so popular that Life magazine published a spread of photographs depicting the events in 1940.

However, Winter Weekend faded into obscurity sometime around 1999, creating “a gap in programming during the winter,” according to last year’s student government president, Dani Chediak ’13, who initiated the event’s reinstatement.

Current BSG President Sarah Nelson ’14 said about this year’s festival, “The idea of the event is to encourage students to celebrate the colder winter months in Maine and to promote a variety of exciting and unusual student programs. …Last year we were happy to see that even some faculty, staff, and their families enjoyed the events that took place on campus during the day on Saturday.”

Photos by Dennis Griggs