National Day

A friend sent the above image to me this week and it has star billing because it made me laugh so much. Just love it. Cannot imagine where the original notice was displayed but the spray-painted addition underlines the subtle truth contained therein!

 

July 21^st is the National Day, a big feestdag for the country. I was intrigued enough about the day to wonder why and from where it came, the English hardly having a National Day unless one counts St George's Day which is barely celebrated. Belgium, as such, has existed only since 1830/31 when, following the example of yet another French revolt, the southern provinces of United Netherlands rebelled against Dutch rule. There was political alienation as well as economic and religious disparities involved and the Dutch were expelled, giving Belgium de facto independence. A National Congress was formed, a Constitution written and the decision made to adopt a constitutional monarchy with its implicit suggestion of political stability, rather than a republic which might have frightened the horses in foreign governments. The aftermath of mob rule after the French Revolution in 1789 still cast a long shadow.

Street entertainers in Brussels on July 21st 2016

SWAT team on duty, a new feature of this year's parade

Congress invited Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a German aristocrat, to be the first King of the Belgians on June 4 1831 and he was crowned on 21 July 1831. He vowed to accept the Constitution and his coronation date thus became the first National Day of Belgium. Usually in Brussels, there is a church service, a review of the army and police with a flypast by the air force and various stalls publicising and explaining the roles of the military, civil defence, emergency services and other government departments. Notable public buildings, normally closed to the public are open and there is a variety of street entertainments and firework displays available. I have discovered, after the event, that this year, unusually, several members of the Belgian Royal Family did not attend the official service and celebrations in Brussels owing to family disagreements. Astonishing to the British outsider here; could not imagine any Royal rift being made so publicly obvious in the UK. Prince Philip and Diana used to manage to appear, smiling, on the Buck House balcony, despite mutual loathing. I then discovered that several leading Flemish politicians also chose to absent themselves as a potent protest; their party would like independence for Flanders.
 

Many smaller cities and towns have celebratory events; in Brugge there are free concerts in the Markt where hundreds gather in the cafes and restaurants ringing this central point and thousands more stand shoulder to shoulder in the Markt itself, drinking coffee and beer. Happily there seems not to be the culture here of drinking to oblivion or even, to real excess, and, noticing this has made me consider the good points of living in this young country. Top of the list must be the absolutely first class health service for which one pays, but so little that it is enough to incur responsibility in the users while being easily available to all, with financial help for the poorest. Perhaps the most striking aspect of life here, taken for granted, indeed barely noticed, by the natives, is the lack of serious disparity in wealth. Taxes are very high but this seems not to breed much resentment, rather a quiet pride in the very real benefits which exist for every citizen and the relative social equality it confers.

Two days stand out during my past week; the annual Beelden in Het Witte Dorp, the outdoors sculpture exhibition in Lissewege, one of the prettiest of many pretty villages in West Flanders [and often referred to as the White Village from its many white-painted houses] It is about 8 kilometres from Brugge. Much of the display is on the huge grass area at the side of the 12 ^th century barn, itself a wonderful historical survivor but there is a large display in the church itself. The church is of almost cathedral-like proportions and is rumoured to have been financed by the Knights Templar, a
notion largely based on the little mystical head, perched high in the rafters, called Baphomet. I know no more than that!  Lissewege, church and village, is an idyllic setting for an important and interesting exhibition full of challenging pieces, often irreverent and eccentric.

 

The second day was yesterday when I received a great early birthday present of a car trip [amazing how the occasional outing in a car assumes important proportions when one no longer has a car!] to some of the WW1 sites in Belgium  crowned with a lovely lunch in Poperinge. My own energy, or lack thereof, shortened the day somewhat so we didn't make it to the Last Post at the Menin Gate but breath was caught at Diksmuide where the memorial tower told a story I had not heard before. The second tower built after 1946, to the dead of both world wars, has AVV and VVK writ large in the form of a cross near its summit. In front of it stands the remnants of the first WW1 tower dynamited in secret in March 1946 by anonymous desecrators. It was experienced as a huge insult to Flanders and the Flemish; the apparently inexplicable act, almost a year after WW2 hostilities had ceased, was interpreted as an assault by Belgians, not outsiders, seeking independence, and still arouses strong emotions today. One of the less successful aspects of the Belgian state is the ethnic tension between Flemish and Walloon which is signalled in the linguistic differences and the elaborate civic and governmental arrangements put in place to accommodate the uneasy relationship within what is, effectively, an artificial, that is to say, a man-made state. I would not go as far as the leader in the New Statesman last week, describing Belgium as a failing pseudo-state but it is a country of uneasy political tensions. Everyday life here is, however, super!

 Alles Voor Vlanderen; Vlaanderen Voor Kristus

The original tower, mainly demolished in March 1946