There are many different festivals in Europe, and they are often concentrated on a specific date. Among them, festivals are held in many towns on August 15th. I would like to share my experience of going to a festival in Liège, Belgium.
What day is August 15th?
The reason why there are so many festivals on August 15th is because this day is the Feast of the Assumption, which is the day that the Virgin Mary was called to heaven.
This day is also a special day in Liechtenstein, as it is the country’s national day, and a ceremony is held in the royal castle, which is normally off-limits to the public.
Click here to see what it was like.
Also in Belgium, the capital Brussels holds an event around August 15th in even-numbered years, where people lay out a large number of flowers in the Grand Place to create a flower carpet.
What is Liege?
This time, we will introduce the festivals in Liège, Belgium, and what kind of city Liège is. Liège is the central city of Wallonia in eastern Belgium. It thrives as an industrial city and is one of Belgium’s major cities. It is home to a baptismal font made by Reignier de Hugh, one of the Seven Great Treasures of Belgium. In addition, the round waffles that are a Belgian specialty are called the Liège style (rectangular waffles are the Brussels style).
For detailed tourist information, please see here.
About the August 15th Festival
This festival held in Liège is also held on the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and is attended by 200,000 people every year. It is not held in the city center where there are tourist attractions, but in the area called Outremeuse across the river.
The festival starts on the weekend before the 15th with a large flea market, followed by children’s events and an amusement park, and then on the 14th, everyone gathers at Autre Muse for a pre-event festival with a concert and other activities, before moving on to the main event on the 15th.
On the 15th, a procession carrying the Black Virgin Mary like a portable shrine takes place in the morning, and mass is held at the church. Then in the afternoon, a parade is held. It was this parade that I decided to participate in.
I Went to the Parade
I traveled to Belgium to coincide with the Flower Carpet in Brussels that I introduced earlier, and after finding out online that there was a festival in Liège on this day, I went there on this day. When I crossed the river and went to the Haut-Muse district, there were already a lot of people there, and after waiting for a while, the parade started. Some of the parades featured people in costumes marching through the streets.
But what was different was that there were giants walking around.
Giants that are almost twice as tall as a person parade through the parade. At first, I was overwhelmed by the impact of their appearance. These giants are heroes of Liège. The giants were created by various groups individually, so each one had a different atmosphere and I never got bored of looking at them.
After the parade, I walked around the area and found a statue of Mary displayed in a house.
Judging from the looks of it, it appears that this is how it is usually displayed, which shows how devoted the people in this area are to the Virgin Mary.
There was a party going on in the square and everyone was drinking.
On this day, they served a drink called “Peckett,” made from juniper berries, which is also used to make gin.
There were also concerts held.
Strange Festival Continues
I only saw the Giant Parade, but the festival finale will be held on the following day, the 16th. The way to celebrate is a little unusual. Please watch this video first.
As you can see, there’s so much going on that it’s hard to know where to start.
First of all, this finale is called Matî l’Ohê in Walloon language, which translates to the Bones of Mathieu. You may have noticed some bones in a box at the beginning and end of the video, which are believed to be Mathieu’s bones. The concept of the finale is that Mathieu was in top form during the festival, but suddenly ended up like this, so everyone should hold a funeral for him. By the way, Mathieu is not a person, but the pig that was on the dinner table at the festival. Many of the people in the video were wearing black clothing because that is what they wear for funerals. Also, the bones are picked up to show that everyone enjoyed the food at the festival until yesterday, so much so that only the bones were left.
When watching the video, a strange scene unfolds before your eyes, with people in mourning clothes dancing merrily. In reality, sad and happy songs are played alternately, with the sad songs reflecting the sadness of the end of the festival and the sadness of the funeral, and the happy songs playing to encourage people to stay positive and cheerful, with the message that “there will be another festival next year.” However, when watching the video, it seems more like they are just having fun than that.
And what everyone is holding is celery. Instead of a bouquet at a funeral, everyone actually throws a bunch of celery when the bones are cremated. I think it’s not a bouquet because Mathieu was meat, not a human. I looked up why it’s celery, but I couldn’t find an answer, and I read that leeks or carrot leaves would also be fine, so it seems like it’s meant to be food for livestock.
Summary
That’s all for the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary held in Liège. I had no idea that there was such an unusual festival held the day after, let alone the giant parade that I participated in. If you are planning to travel to Belgium during this time, please be sure to participate on both days.
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