Festival of the Walloon Region

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The feast day of the Walloon Region ( Walloon Fiesses del Walonreye ; French Fête de la Région wallonne , often also called Fête de la Wallonie , Fêtes de Wallonie or les Wallos ; Dutch Feest van het Waalse Gewest ) is celebrated in Belgium on the third Sunday in September . The feast day commemorates the Walloons' participation in the Belgian Revolution of 1830.

Parade for Walloon Region Day in Namur

Legal basis

Extract from the decree establishing the feast day and the landmarks of the Walloon Region (published on August 8, 1998 in the Belgian State Gazette ):

“The Walloon Regional Council has adopted the following and we, the Government, sanction it: Article 1 - The Walloon Region festival is celebrated on the third Sunday of September every year. (...) Namur, July 23, 1998. "

In Namur

In the Walloon capital Namur you can experience Belgian folklore on the third Sunday in September. The celebrations begin on Thursday and end on Monday evening. In addition to the local population, they attract tens of thousands of visitors from all over Wallonia. The Walloon Region Festival in Namur is organized by the Wallonia Central Committee, founded in 1923 by François Bovesse . His archive was deposited in 2004 in the service of the Archives régionales du Service Public de Wallonie in the Moulin de Meuse in Beez (Namur). The inventory of the entire collection was published in 2007.

A wide range of entertainment will be organized over the five days of the festival, including a .:

  • a mass read in the Walloon dialect of Namur (on Monday in the Saint-Jean church in the heart of the city)
  • some fairground attractions
  • the traditional stilt tournaments
  • the tasting of Walloon specialties, for example with "avisance" (pork sausage wrapped in puff pastry)
  • Peket (juniper brandy) tasting for everyone

Until the late 1960s there were only two types of juniper schnapps, the undiluted peket with around 20 percent alcohol and the pecq extended with mint syrup. As a result, numerous other varieties have come onto the market.

In memory
  • a pilgrimage to Namurs Cemetery, where the merits of the veterans of both world wars are honored
  • the Route des Plaques (memory of famous Namur citizens such as Nicolas Bosret, Félicien Rops, François Bovesse ...)
  • the Route du Peket , a boat trip between the three locks around Namur and in the streets of the old town, accompanied by a brass band; Peket is served
  • official speeches by representatives of the city and regional authorities
  • Awarded the Mérite Wallon Order of Merit
  • Presentation of the hymn of Namur, li lia Bouquet , by the Société Royale Moncrabeau
  • traditional stilt fighting on stilts with tournament stirrups

In Liège

At the same time, celebrations are taking place in several cities in the province of Liège . For example, in 2013, events related to the major event were organized in 65 of the province's 84 municipalities. To the delight of young and old, the celebration culminates in numerous concerts with free admission and other activities in Liège. A podium will be set up on Place St. Lambert, where well-known singers will sing their hits at the weekend. On the square, you can also enjoy regional specialties in the Village des Confréries . In various small stalls, visitors can, for example , buy sirop de Liège , boulets à la liègeoise ( meatball with a sauce made from beer and syrup from Liege), rice cakes from the neighboring town of Verviers, waffles, several types of juniper schnapps (peket) and beer and other homemade ones Try products. The Musée de la vie wallonne (Museum of Walloon Life) is open on Saturday and Sunday . Guided tours, games and workshops are organized there. After all, a Sunday parade makes a tour of the city. The participants in the parade come from cities throughout the province of Liège, such as Stavelot , Malmedy , Theux and Tilff, and bring the region's cultural heritage to the fore.

literature

  • Pierre De Spiegeler, Michel Weyssow: Le Comité central de Wallonie: sa première histoire (1923–1939) (suivi de l'inventaire des archives), in Annales de la Société archéologique de Namur, Tome 81, 2007, pp. 95–203 .
  • Jacques Vandenbroucke (text), Pierre Dandoy (photos): 40 ans de fêtes de Wallonie à Namur, Bruxelles, L. Pire, 2000, p. 191, ISBN 2-87415-014-2 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ “Decree establishing the feast day and the landmarks of the Walloon Region” (PDF; 47 kB), Belgisches Staatsblatt , August 8, 1998.