Carnival in Hasselt

In three weeks we'll celebrate Easter in the Catholic Christian world and in Hasselt, provincial capital of one of the nine Belgian provinces, Limburg, they have been celebrating over this last weekend the 2008 Carnival! Say what? Well yes... we were equally shocked at the news. As I was having a coffee and relaxing at the King George pub, at the corner of the Grote Markt, a local chap, sitting next to me and watching me pulling out my photographic and video gear started a smalltalk with me. 'Yes', he admitted in his local accent, sipping his kriek (cherry) beer, '...it's kinda late for carnival... but that's the way we do it for centuries.'

'It's normal' said my youngest son a little later. 'In Limburg everything is slower than in any other place', he said, bursting in laughs about the locals enjoying a reputation of not being as smart as in the rest of Flanders. Known old story: every country has a part of its population being laughed at as being double-digit IQ's.

It's not fair though... other than their singing accent that sounds quite funny, Limburgers are extremely amicable people and equally smart with the rest of us, if not smarter.

The dude on the picture above was huge and played the trumpet... he looked like a zombie risen from his grave where he was laid with his red Baron uniform and all, after he crashed his plane in the Great War. If you are curious to see more of my shots from the carnival, link here.