The Fire Festival

Last night we decided to take in some of the local culture and attend the Feux de la Saint-Jean (Fires of St. Jean) here in Mons. We had no idea what we were attending...a coworker just mentioned something about a "fire festival" in town. Sounded interesting enough to us, so we headed down to the Grand Place around 9:30 last night.

The festival started with a little band playing some slow, funny sounding music. Then, people dressed in all white with white painted faces walked slowly out of the town hall, miming that they were cold. After a few trips around the stage, a crazy little lady came out with springy shoes on and danced around, yelling things in French. At her request, the cold people awoke Monseur Hiver (Mr. Winter)...who was the 20 ft tall puppet you see in the pictures. After more dancing and spraying of white confetti...Mr. Winter apparently kicked the bucket...although I have no idea what killed him. He just kind of fell over.

After burying Mr. Winter, the summer people came out wearing butterfly outfits and fruit and vegetable hats...crazy Belgians. More dancing and music ensued. Finally, all the groups got together and they lit fire wheels and set off fireworks. It was a very elaborate production.

Once the sun finally set around 10:30, people gathered again in the Grand Place where several high school drum lines were performing. People lit torches and and followed the bands in a line through the town to another area where they apparently lit a huge bonfire, although we didn't go to that part...we sat at a cafe and had a beer instead. Overall, it was another strange but wonderful night here in Belgium.