DOUDOU

• Kulick001's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Mons

Trip Start May 23, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Oct 02, 2007 Next
Entry

  Mons, Belgium
Friday, June 8, 2007

The Doudou is the name of a week-long series of festivies, which originates from the 14th century and takes place every year on Trinity Sunday. Highlights include:
The entrusting of the reliquary of Saint Waltrude to the mayor of the city on the eve of the procession.
The placement of the reliquary on the Car d'Or (golden carriage), before it is carried in the city streets in a colourful procession that counts more than a thousand costumed participants.
The lifting of the Car d'Or on a paved area near the church of Saint Waltrude; tradition holds that this operation must be successful for the city to prosper.
The Lumeçon fight, where Saint George confronts the dragon. The fight lasts for about half an hour, accompanied by the rhytmic "Doudou" music

and again..

. The tradition of the processional dragon is listed among the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

With that said my fortunate opportunity to have experienced the doudou was a great one.  The above is very technical and traditionally set but an easier way to put it would be... a good excuse to drink heavily for a week straight.  I swear some people must have stayed out in the city for days at a time.  It didnt matter whether you were there at 9am or 10pm...people were drinking all hrs of the day.  We all had a great time and the last night we watched fireworks from the center of mons.  We were so close the ashes were falling our faces.
Another neat thing was the variety of shops, stands, and food which flooded most of the streets of mons.  I opted for the food ofcourse and bought a coconut ball (a cookie made of coconut and sugar basically)..very good.
The only downfall of the doudou was because of the ridiculous amount of people that were there, everyone would just pee in the streets and you could often smell it...not cool.
Aside from the doudou I played my second softball game since being over here.  We didnt play a very strong team but it was good practice for us to learn how to work together a little better.  Suprisingly i played shortstop and had a blast.  I told my coach i didnt want to pitch anymore because shortstop was more fun.  Less pressure and more balls hit to you.  The last two innings i pitched.  We won 7-0.  I have a great time playing with the team.  They truly just play for the love of the game.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

band at the doudou	concert	doudou slowing down a little	doudou stuff
Dragon fight at the Doudou	fountain	King	me and clem
reliquary for the golden chariot

Slideshow Print this entry Share Mons hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry