Giants walking up Belgian streets?

February 9, 2009 by Jackie Grandchamps

February is the month of parades and carnivals in France and Belgium. France can brag about Nice that hosts the most elaborated parade of floats on the French Riviera. But Belgium offers the most animated festivities for the lucky visitors who will attend the craziest carnival parades.

In Binche, Province of Hainaut, from Feb. 22 to 24, the most famous Belgian Carnivalwill attract thousands of people. The Gilles giants will parade in the streets, throwing oranges, with drums resounding all around them. Fireworks will end the days, on Monday and Tuesday.

But who are the Gilles? They are the local Carnival characters, and have been around since the 14th century. They are impressive by their height and typical costume stuffed with hay and decorated with jingle bells around their waist. Their feathered headdress is 4 feet tall and can weigh 7 pounds. The costumes matching the colors of the Belgian flag (black, red and yellow) are new every year.

Eight hundred Gilles are walking every year in the Binche parade, and this event has been listed on the Unesco Heritage list, since 2003, as an ” oral and intangible patrimony of humanity”.

The Binche carnival is serious merrymaking and pageantry at its finest.

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