The College is far from alone in its celebration of the winter season. Many New England colleges have comparable holidays.
While Psi Upsilon fraternity brothers at Dartmouth jump over rows of kegs in the annual Keg Jump, students at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, throw their kegs.
Among the activities of the college's Winter Weekend is the annual "keg-throwing contest," said Chris Sullivan, the college's Student Association social chair.
"It's like a shot-put kind of thing," Sullivan explained.
Dartmouth's Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity holds a beach party every Carnival and blankets the house's floors in sand. But Colby's students hope to provide warm water as well as sand at their similar party.
The students are planning to put hot tubs in the student center for a beach party which will feature "a lifeguard who sits in a chair and plays songs," Sullivan said.
Broomball, anyone?
Perhaps not as elaborate as the snow sculptures which have graced Dartmouth's Green, Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vt. also constructs sculptures during its Winter Weekend.
Marlboro's Director of Outdoor and Recreational Programs, Randy Knaggs, said past sculptures have included "a green mountain, Winnie the Pooh, a stegosaurus, adobes made out of snow piles and a shark eating someone."
The college has a competition between student sculptors, but "I usually set it up so that everybody wins," Knaggs said.
No Dartmouth tradition compares to the highlight of Marlboro's winter celebration -- "broomball," a sport now in its ninth year as a weekend tradition.
In "broomball," players, dressed in costumes related to the theme of the college's Winter Weekend, use brooms to hit a ball across the ice into one of two goals.
"This year, the students plan to wear white outfits from the dining hall," Knaggs said. "They wore togas once but it didn't work very well," Knaggs said.
Although "broomball" is a physical sport, Knaggs said the injury rates have declined since the college began requiring participants to wear elbow and knee pads.
Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, also plans to "ice over the quad" for a game of broomball, said Shannon Murphy, the college's acting director of student activities and smith union.
Because it falls on Feb. 14 and 15, Bowdoin's weekend will have a Valentine's Day theme. The college plans to celebrate with snow sculpting, a hockey game, a dance and a five-foot tall bonfire, Murphy said, which are also Dartmouth traditions.
The Thursday before Winter Weekend, Bowdoin is planning a game of "Bowdoinopoly," a murder-mystery which will include references to members of the college community, Murphy said.
Last year's holiday had a Mardi Gras theme and included a Casino night, palm reading and steel drum band, she said.
Because of the timing of their winter celebration, the University of Connecticut is also planning a Mardi Gras Fest, said Pablo Malavenda, coordinator for student activities at the University.
The university's celebration will include a John Travolta film festival and carnival games, rides and music.
Malavenda said the college's celebration was once even more elaborate. But, like at Dartmouth, the celebration also has to compete with other traditional weekends.
Playing in the snow
The Dartmouth Winter Carnival was founded as an opportunity to enjoy outdoor activities. Colleges along the East Coast seem to have begun their winter traditions in a similar spirit.
The University of New Hampshire in Durham has been celebrating winter since the late 1960s, said Kelly Anderson, winter carnival chair of the UNH campus activities board.
Anderson said students at UNH are excited about the recent snowfall that will allow them to celebrate their traditional ice-sculpting contest, sledding race and outdoor scavenger hunt.
Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.,. is also planning an ice sculpture exhibition.
This tradition began last year when Brandeis hired ice sculptors to create a display and students spontaneously began to carve, said Elaine Wong, Brandeis associate dean of arts and sciences for undergraduate education.
Brandeis plans to display sculptures that relate to this year's jazz theme, she said.
Popular events during the Winter Weekend of Boston's Northeastern University are a trip to a local skating rink and snow sculpting, said the university's Director of Student Activities, Diane Spatafore.
Plymouth State College's Assistant Director of Student Activities, Darrell Claiborne, said the college will celebrate winter with a day off from classes with the option of going skiing.
Other New England colleges, including Harvard, Amherst and Wesleyan, do not set aside a special weekend to celebrate the season.
