Carnival in Waimes

Carnival in the east of Belgium is serious business, as in the neighbouring province of Limburg or across the border in Cologne/ Aachen and other West German cities. 

I'm not too big in carnival and usually we are not around, but this year I was in the mood to go and watch the parade(s) in the neighbourhood.  


Saturday Feb 17th - Sourbrodt

I had seen the facebook ads that the parade would go out in Sourbrodt on Saturday but the weather was dreadful and none of my men wanted to get out of the door and I was quite hesitant myself.  We had seen this rather small parade ourselves in 2020 with my mother and we had been miserable cold back then as well.  

So we don't go...but I needed to run some errands so with a good timing and slight detour, I ran into the parade anyhow and saw some of the last trailers.  It was awefully cold and wet though so I pitied the participants and the lack of a watching crowd.  
And thanks to the lack of a watching crowd, I got generously treated to an extensive confetti shower that got pushed well down into my clothes...thank you very much for that. 

Monday Feb 20th - Faymonville

The weather gods were gracious on Monday and this time the children were very eager to go and watch the bigger parade from the neighbourhood. 14 trailers from many surrounding villages would go out in the village of the "Turcs".  I had been here with a baby Kabouter on my belly at the end of my first maternity leave/ unemployment period but had not attended since. 

Thanks to the sun, a nice crowd had come out to watch.  

The villagers, nicknamed since centuries as "Turcs" and now proudly bearing this name, opened the parade as sultan's with a moon crescent on their flag. 

Some trailers I had already seen on Saturday. 

This time it were my children who got the confetti shower, as well as nearby viewers but I got spared.  A confetti prohibition as in many Flemish cities (for ecological reasons) surely is not existant here. 

We watched all the crafted trailers , each in a clear theme of so many known villages to us but I couldn't recognize any participant.  Some were really cool! It was fun to watch. 
And the boys were happy to gather more candy than is good for them.