Today is Belgian National Day, which is to Belgium what Independence Day is to Americans. After the Napoleonic Wars in the first decade of the 19th century, Belgium became part of the United Netherlands. But on October 4, 1830, Belgians held an uprising against the King of the Netherlands, King William I of Orange-Nassau. A month later, the revolutionaries decided to start writing a constitution for an independent Belgium. They decided that Belgium should be a constitutional monarchy.
Of course, the next question becomes: who shall be king? For reasons I haven’t quite figured out, the revolutionaries chose Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was German. Leopold traveled to Brussels, swore allegiance to the new constitution, and officially became the first king of Belgium on July 21, 1831. Thus, July 21st is considered the birth of Belgium as an independent nation.
Most of the action occurs in Brussels, where the festivities start the night before with a classical music concert by the Belgian National Orchestra.
On National Day itself, the day begins with Te Deum, a traditional Catholic thanksgiving service in the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula, which is attended by top officials and members of the Belgian royal family.
For us ordinary folk, the big event is the military and civilian parade in Brussels, which features military equipment throughout the decades, along with police, customs and civil security officers and firefighters. There’s also the Resto National, a communal dinner serving the first moules-frites (mussels and fries) of the season. Of course, there are street festivals, concerts, sporting events, and fireworks all over Belgium. Museums traditionally have free admission.
Here in Antwerp, the action centers on Theaterplein. It’s a street festival, with music playing and about 100 booths offering food, clothing, jewelry, and other merchandise. I dressed in black and red, the closest I could get to black, yellow, and red, the Belgian national colors – but no one at Theaterplein was dressed in patriotic colors the way Americans often do on 4th of July. What I did see was lots of people out on the streets, enjoying a pleasant holiday.
