It's in this city that the story of Mononk Simpélourd originates. Mononk was a cobbler in the 18th century. He was married to a woman who didn't think faithfulness was the most important virtue in a marriage. One day, the deceived husband dared to raise his voice after which his wife immediately took her belongings and left the poor fellow to the mockery of the whole city, who called him "simple" and "lourd" (heavy, clumsy,...).
The cobbler refused to wallow in self pity and he decided to take revenge on his friends. He invited them for a dinner of smoked ham, but when they tried to cut the ham, it appeared to be made of wood. He laughed and asked them: "Who's the simple mind now?", while he prepared them a real meal.
The fooled friends decided not to leave it like this. They made a doll out of straw, resembling the shoemaker, and carried it through the streets of the city, while shouting and laughing out loudly. Lots of people joined and a real procession was formed. A couple of days later they hooked the dummy to a window and burned it.
 |
| Statue of Simpélourd |
Festival of Mononk Simpélourd
Nowadays Soignies still remembers this event on the Saturday preceeding the 3rd Sunday of October with the festival of Mononk (my uncle) Simpélourd. Mononk arrives at the train station at 6 pm and a whole bunch of fanfares, giants, folklore groups and children with lanterns follow him through the streets of Soignies. In the parade Mononk throws "carabibis" (a kind of sweet caramel especially made for the occasion) to the crowd. On Tuesday the dummy is burned.Soignies
Soignies is a nice little city, founded in the 7th century. It has one of the few Romanesque churches in Belgium, adjacent to a cloth hall. Soignies is famous for its glass and for its blue granite.
 |
| Saint-Vincent's church of Soignies |
No comments:
Post a Comment