Hosted in the capital city of Brussels, this spectacular mediaeval procession called the “Ommegang”, was originally a religious procession, meaning to ‘walk round’ in Flemish word. Its history reaches back to 1348 when a very devout woman named Beatrice Soetkens had a vison of the Blessed Mary, the Mother of God, who commanded her to travel to Antwerp and take the miraculous statue of “Our Lady on the Little Stick”. After she successfully brought it to Brussels, it was placed in the chapel of the Crossbowmen’s Guild in the Sablon district. The guild venerated it as their patron and promised to hold an annual procession, called an Ommegang, carrying the statue through Brussels. In the following decades, the original religious procession gradually changed, In 1549, the Ommegang not only celebrated the religious legend but had combined with the “Joyous Entry” of Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V and his son, Philip II, the then crown prince of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands. On that occasion, the Brussels’ elites and people in power at that time decided to show off the wealth and glory of their city by organizing an Ommegang honoring Charles V and his son with spectacular equestrian parades in the Sablon and in the Grand Place. During the 16th century, the Ommegang was highly affected with the political and religious turmoil and turned into a sad and unpleasant occasion until being sporadically held until in the 19th century. The current version of the Ommegang started when it was revived in 1930 for the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the Belgian Revolution. The organizers of this modern version of the Ommegang decided to not revive the religious practice part and focused instead more on the event when it was organized to honor the...... Read more on Full Issue!