Here is a souvenir ribbon from the very first Ottawa Winter Carnival in 1895  (which eventually became the annual “Winterlude” in Ottawa).   It is such a great piece of Canadian Sporting Historical Memorabilia.  Here is some information I found on the internet about the 1895 celebration  :

Ottawa’s first winter carnival, held over six days beginning on Jan. 21, 1895, was the hottest cold-weather ticket going in the capital, with snowshoeing, skating, curling, hockey and ice-trotting only small parts of the overall festivities. Visitors from Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, New York and elsewhere filled the city’s hotels and rooming houses.   A massive ice castle, meanwhile, was built on Nepean Point, and numerous toboggan slides constructed.  An allegorical drive, or parade, was staged, with horse-drawn cars entered by such groups as the Ottawa Bicycle Club, The Ottawa Amateur Athletic Club’s Snowshoe Club, the Independent Order of Foresters, the Capital Lacrosse Club and the Ottawa Cricket Club, the latter the city’s oldest athletic organization. Meanwhile, local residents portrayed such historical figures as Christopher Columbus, Samuel de Champlain, Jacques Cartier and Louis de Buade de Frontenac. The drive also included mules, oxen, dogs, elks and moose.  Additionally, the Citizen noted, “During the coming carnival extensive preparation will be made to make an attractive show of Scandinavian winter sports,” including “Skider” or skies, and “Sparkstoettingar” (sleighs propelled by the feet).  Three days before the festival’s opening, the electric searchlight atop the main tower of the Parliament Building was tested to great effect. “Its penetrating rays reached the most distant points,” the Citizen reported. “It will prove a great feature of the carnival.”  A second searchlight was placed on top of J.R. Booth’s mill, pointed towards Chaudiere Falls, with “a number of colored slides … used to procure various effects.”

I am not 100% sure what material the ribbon is made of but my best guess would be a silk/satin material.  It measures 2 1/8  inches wide by just under 6 3/8  inches long.  It has some fraying at the top and bottom and some areas of discoloration and creases.  I think it displays nicely for a piece that has survived over the last 129 years. I have provided large scan of both the front and back, for you to be able to judge condition for yourself.

 I doubt many of these were made in the first place, and I don’t imagine many of those survived over the 129 years.  Rare is a term that gets used often these days, but this is truly a rare piece of Canadian Winter Sports history.    Items like this don’t come out on the market very often.