Straddling the borders between Germany, France, Luxembourg and The Netherlands we’re off to Belgium to look at one of their more crazy festivals.  The Bommel Festival takes place in Ronse, a small textile town south of Ghent with a population of about twenty-four thousand people.   Lying in the beautiful Flemish Provence of East Flanders, Ronse’s towns folk are bilingual, being both  Walloon and Flemish speakers.

Today the towns folk dress up in large elaborate costumes depicting all kinds of figures wearing grand masks.  They process along a route bumping into each other and knocking each other senseless which must be hilariously funny to watch.  Held on the first Saturday that follows Epiphany, it’s more affectionately  called “Crazy Monday” .

This festival has evolved from deeper traditions as the town of Ronse is more famous for the Church of Saint Hermes.  In the ninth century the relics of St. Hermes came into Ronse.  Viking raids forced the local monks to leave town more than once and the monastery was burnt down. When the relics were recovered they were housed in a Romanesque crypt and later the St. Hermes Church was built on top of the crypt.  St. Hermes was known to be able to cure mental illnesses and pilgrims sought his cleansing power from their torturous ailments.

You can check out more about the Bommel Festival (English version).  Visit Flanders is also worth a scout around as there is more to this country than meets the eye.

Tags: Bommel Festival, Bommel Sfeesten, Crazy Monday, Epiphany, Ronse

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