Ommegang of Brussels

According to legend, the origin of the Ommegang goes back to a local devout woman named 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) in Antwerp, bring it to Brussels and place it in the chapel of the Crossbow Company. The woman stole the statue and, through a series of miraculous events, was able to bring it to Brussels by boat, in 1348. The statue of Mary was then solemnly placed in the chapel and venerated as the patron of the Crossbow Company. The Crossbow Company promised to hold an annual procession, called an 'Ommegang', in which the statue was carried through Brussels.

Through the following decades, what was originally a religious procession took on gradually a more worldly outlook. The Ommegang of 1549 corresponds to a golden age of the procession. From the mid-16th century, the Ommegang not only celebrated the miraculous legend, but became intertwined with the Joyous Entry of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The Ommegang thus developed into an important religious and civil event in the annual calendar of Brussels.[2]

During the second half of the 16th century, the event was dependent on political and religious upheavals in the Spanish Low Countries. Between 1580 and 1585, when the city was in the hands of the Protestants, the procession was simply suppressed. In the 17th century, the event regained its luster, under the government of Albert VII and Isabella. In the 18th century, the decline of the demonstration began. The last (very small) Ommegang took place in 1785.

The Ommegang in Brussels on 31 May 1615. The Triumph of Archduchess Isabella, by Denis van Alsloot

In 1930, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Belgium, some history enthusiasts supported efforts to commemorate once again this demonstration, in the form of a historical procession. Given the success of this performance, it was decided to repeat it in subsequent years. This was the origin of the present Ommegang. The organising committee chose not to revive the ancestral "circumambulation", but to make it a spectacle reproducing and repeating the sumptuous Ommegang offered, in 1549, by the city of Brussels to Charles V and his son Philip II.

The current event brings together about 1,400 extras, including several dozen riders dressed in period costumes. There are also stilt walkers and giants such as the archangel Saint Michael, Saint Gudula and the Bayard horse. Since 2011, each year, a personality from the world of the arts is entrusted 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 have successively lent themselves to the exercise.

Although it has become a historical show, the Ommegang nevertheless preserves many traditional and authentic elements, such as the presence of the Brussels Lineages, the Oaths of Crossbowmen and the Virgin of Victories, and remains in the minds of the people of Brussels a major event of the year.