Ommegang of Brussels

The Dutch term Ommegang (originally spelled Ommeganck) means "moving around" or "walking around" (e.g. the church, village or city) and is an old historical evocation of Brussels' largest lustral procession, which took place once a year, on the Sunday before Pentecost. The term is similarly used as a generic name for various medieval pageants celebrated in the Low Countries (i.e. areas that are now within Belgium, the Netherlands, and Northern France). The Ommegang in Brussels was originally an annual Christian procession held in honour of Our Lady of Victory, the city's powerful protector, whose statue is currently in the Church of Our Lady of Victories at the Sablon. The term thus evoked the act of "circumambulation" around a religious symbol (i.e. the Virgin Mary's statue), in Latin or , which can be found in many religions and beliefs. This Marian procession gradually acquired a more secular character, and became a major civic occasion involving local guilds, charitable fraternities, and urban institutions. ==History==

Origins (–1785) According to legend, the origin of the Ommegang of Brussels goes back to a local devout woman named Beatrix (Béatrice or Beatrijs) Soetkens. She had a vision in which the Virgin Mary instructed her to steal the miraculous statue of ''Onze-Lieve-Vrouw op 't Stocxken'' ("Our Lady on the Little Stick") from the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, bring it to Brussels, and place it in the chapel of the Crossbowmen's Guild in the Sablon/Zavel district. The woman stole the statue, and through a series of miraculous events, was able to transport it to Brussels by boat in 1348. It was then solemnly placed in the chapel and venerated as the guild's patron. The guild also promised to hold an annual procession, called an Ommegang, in which the statue was carried through Brussels. On that occasion, Brussels' elites wished to honour the Emperor and his son by organising spectacular equestrian parades in the Sablon and on the Grand-Place/Grote Markt. The Ommegang thus developed into an important religious and civil event in the city's annual calendar. During the second half of the 16th century, the Ommegang was dependent on political and religious upheavals in the Spanish Low Countries. The event was described at that time in the diary of a bourgeois of Brussels, Jan de Potter, who, over the years, mentions that it was sad, ugly or worse, that it did not take place. Between 1580 and 1585, when the city was in the hands of Calvinists, the procession was simply suppressed. In the 17th century, the Ommegang regained its lustre, under the reigns of the Archdukes Albert VII and Isabella, sovereigns of the Spanish Netherlands, as depicted in a series of paintings by the court painters Denis van Alsloot and Antoon Sallaert, representing the celebrations of 1615. In the 18th century, the decline of the demonstration began. The last (very small) annual Ommegang took place in 1785, followed by only two sporadic performances in the 19th century. preceded by a group of clergymen carrying the Virgin of Victories, also still participate in this sacred procession. Although it has become a historical pageant, the Ommegang retains many traditional and authentic elements, such as the presence of the Brussels Lineages, the Oaths of Crossbowmen, as well as the Virgin Mary's statue, and remains a major yearly event in Brussels' calendar. Since 2011, a personality from the world of the arts is entrusted, each year, with the role of herald, and comments on the show at the Grand-Place. Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Stéphane Bern, Jacques Weber, Francis Huster, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, and Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, to name a few, have successively lent themselves to the exercise. In 2017, the Ommegang was included in the inventory of intangible cultural heritage of the Brussels-Capital Region, and in 2019, it was recognised as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. File:Ommegang Bruselas 2017 08 video.ogg|The Emperor Charles V and crown prince Philip II in the modern Ommegang File:Ommegang Bruselas 2017 ballesteros.jpg|Grand Oath of Crossbowmen of Brussels participating in the Ommegang File:Cavaliers de l'Ommegang.jpg|Noble riders honouring Emperor Charles V during the Ommegang ==See also==