Bommel Festival

When: January 7 to 9Where: Ronse, BelgiumCost: Free Epiphany in Ronse means more than taking down old Christmas decorations: it’s synonymous for yet another party. Pride of place goes to the ‘Bommels’, or Corks, characters dressed in monumental...

When: January 7 to 9
Where: Ronse, Belgium
Cost: Free

Epiphany in Ronse means more than taking down old Christmas decorations: it’s synonymous for yet another party. Pride of place goes to the ‘Bommels’, or Corks, characters dressed in monumental costumes whose main purpose is to knock each other senseless as they parade along a route. This bizarre spectacle is the high-point of the events on ‘Crazy Monday’, now rather confusingly held on the first Saturday after Epiphany every year.

Epiphany means yet another party

The small town of Ronse is a rarity in the plat pays (flat country) of Flanders, situated as it is in the hills of the Ardennes.

Bommels and scenic views aside, the town is known also for the church of St Hermes, whose 11th-century crypt was a site of pilgrimage for the mentally ill throughout the Middle Ages.

Fly to Brussels (64 km from Ronse) with Air Malta.

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