Belgian Festivals.

We are happy to present some of

our local festivals !

The Belgian Team

The first one is celebrated eachyear on the 6th December…

…especially by Children!

Do you know who is that veryrespectable-looking gentleman?

It’s Saint Nicolas!

Our Saint Nicolas was originally the bishop of Myra in the 4th century

AD. It is said that he performedmiracles, inlcuding famously

bringing back to life 3 children whohad been cut in pieces and preserved in salt by a nasty

butcher… Can you believe it!

So if you’ve been good this year…

Saint Nicolas will be good to you!

And to make sure that he comes…Let’s sing the song!

Oh grand Saint-Nicolas Patron des Ecoliers

Apporte-moi des pommes Dans mes petits souliersJe serai toujours sage

Comme un petit moutonJ’apprendrai mes leçons Pour avoir des bonbons

Venez venez Saint-Nicolas Venez venez Saint-Nicolas

Venez venez Saint-Nicolas et tra la la…

Now this second festival is typicalof our city of Liège…

On the 15th August we celebratethe assomption of the Virgin Mary

in our traditional district of Outremeuse, which becomes a

Free Republic during 3 days!

These are the most crazy days of theyyear! Celebrations include:

-Procession of the Statue of a Black Virgin Mary

- Mass celebrated outdoor- Concerts

- Parade of Giant figures of our first Prince-Bishop Notger, Emperor

Charlemagne and our typical PuppetsTchantchès and Nanesse!

And of course we never forget to drink our traditional spirit, Peket,

natural our flavoured…

Close to Liège we also have manycarnivals, including the one in the city of Stavelot, which is quite spectacular!

This character dressed in white witha long red nose is a Blanc Moussi!

On the day of the Carnival (3rd Sunday before Easter, this year 30th March), the Blanc moussis parade

all around town playing jokes to people, throwing confetti or water

balloons! They are funnymischievous characters!

This tradition goes back to the Middle Ages, when the city was ruled by the Abbot of

Stavelot. The abbot got very angry becausemonks were taking part in the Carnival while

they were supposed to spend their life in prayers! So he forbade the monks to go, but to commemorate this the people of Stavelot started to dress like monks, and added the funny nose to show that monks really had a

great time at the Carnival…

We hope youenjoyed our

presentation!