Carnaval

This past Fat Tuesday, instead of our weekly class, our CIEE program headed out to the small Belgian town of Binche to experience the town's renowned tradition of Carnaval. Located in the southwest of Belgium, Binche is a small town of roughly 30,000 inhabitants located in the French Speaking Wallonia province of Belgium. The town has come to be known for its annual Carnaval festival, a three day festival every February when the town becomes overrun with people piling into its small streets to engage in the festivities. What those festivities celebrate, I could not tell you, but hey its an annual event and seems to be pretty successful. The festival has been recognized by UNESCO for its cultural significance, another thing I don't quite understand but means it's important.

We arrived in Binche around 2 in the afternoon. Tuesday marks the final day of the festival, in which the local towns men known as Gilles wake up early and spend the day dressed in their traditional Gilles attire, 

Which look like this

You can't tell from the photo, but they're wearing clogs, which I can not even begin to comprehend how one could walk around in such things for an entire day. Props to the Gilles

The Gilles perform ritual dances and songs throughout the day, usually accompanied by drummers and take part in a parade through the center of town. Arriving just in time for the parade, I don't think many of us really knew what we in for. The outside of town was swarmed with car traffic while the town's streets were blocked off to allow the swarms of people to mill about. We quickly learned that in Wallonia, timeliness is not as necessary as in say Flanders or Brussels, so the parade did not start on time, and took a while to get going. This allowed us some time to experience the area, and of course sample the local beer. This includes La Binchoise, which is brewed locally in Binche, featured a nice smooth flavor and had a bottle recognizable by the Gilles on its label.

No I didn't get a picture of it, so enjoy this picture from the internet

I also enjoyed St. Feuillien, whose brewery we passed on the bus ride to Binche, with a convenient location right next to the highway (although they're not quite highways in Belgium, more like routes like 3a with rotaries every couple of kilometers. Also, why is rotary a strictly Boston area term? Roundaboat is too British). This one was also quite good.

Another Internet Picture

Sadly, the rest of the day consisted mostly of Jupiler, but you know money is something one needs to think about. The bars were interesting. Most of them had their doors open with the thousands of people quickly shuffling in and out. They all had similar menus but each had its own unique aesthetic i guess. Like in the one called Jungle Bar, we found this:

Not Sure What Underwear has to do with a Jungle but hey Carnaval!

As the anticipation reached insurmountable levels, the parade finally started. The streets were a comical mix of characters, people dressed up in outfits ranging from typical Mardi Gras masks, to onesies, superhero costumes and mostly just ridiculous hats. 

Not My Hat

Tori Adopted a Child

Some Local Decoration

There were excessive amounts of silly string and confetti strewn throughout the crowd, which although entertaining, did produce some minor problems.

Like Confetti in your Beer

ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS

Basically by the time the parade started, there was as much confetti on the ground as there is snow in Boston right now (Forced joke about the absurd amount of snowfall at home).

The Gilles as well as other groups of children dressed up in costume passed by in a series of groups.

Mini Gilles

I'll Let you make the joke about these ones

The Gilles in their Ostrich Feather Hats

The most entertaining part of the parade is definitely the throwing of oranges by the Gilles, who throw blood oranges into the crowd in every manner imaginable. Seriously, some are lightly tossed, others are launched, hucked, catapulted, handed, rolled, thrown of buildings and every ridiculous way you can think of tossing an orange. The crowd basically begs for the oranges (myself included), and the Gilles could be some tricky fellows, at times coordinating their throws so that when the crowd made a loud fuss, they would lunch all their oranges at once like an orange tsunami. It is not uncommon to take several oranges of the back, chest or face without any foresight. Luckily, I didn't get hit in the face with one, which could not be said for Hank who took 3 to the face. I did however manage to catch one while taking a video of the parade, so go me. 

Following the parade, there was a break in action before the final celebrations being held that night. Having thought the town was crowded beforehand, it had been nothing like the post parade, as the thousands of people dispersed from their parade views and took shelter in each and every bar in the town, each of which were stuffed to the brim with people, which made ordering a drink just a tad difficult. 

Everyone then packed into the town's Grand Place, which like most European town centers is highlighted by a church and one other large building. 

This one appears to have a clock on it

The final ceremonies began with the numerous Gilles proceeding in formation into the Grand Place, dancing as they walked, but sadly out of oranges. The Gilles dance around a series of bonfires, a long serving centerpiece of the carnaval celebration, albeit in a smaller scale nowadays.

The celebrations are capped with a fireworks display that holds it own for such a small town.

No Idea what this said, but it looked cool

As we headed back to our bus to return to Brussels, one could not help but notice the sheer amount of oranges leftover on the streets. It provided a nice dynamic to the mountains of confetti in some places as well as discarded cups and bottles. It really was quite the beautiful sight.

I don't know if I'd trust the orange juice in Binche

 I certainly do not envy those who will have to clean up the city's streets, but they are the real heroes of Carnaval.
I ended up with a respectable amount of oranges, which I all caught. I carried them in my coat pockets all day as opposed to filling up a shopping bag like some people who shall rename nameless.

It's a few days later and my room is still covered with confetti that has seemed to find its way into some bizarre areas of my clothing and is now living on my floor. I should probably vacuum but that takes effort.

It may not be New Orleans, but Binche clearly offers a more authentic Carnaval experience than most will witness. And for my first time truly celebrating Carnaval, there could not have been a better place to do so.  Cheers.