Ommegang

What the name means

In Dutch the word ommegang describes a walk around something, whether that is a church, a village or a whole city. Over time it became the general label for a group of medieval pageants staged in the Low Countries, the region that today takes in Belgium, the Netherlands and the north of France. Each town shaped its own version. A number of these customs in Belgium and France are listed by UNESCO as oral and intangible cultural heritage, and the listing points to the objects carried in them, among them the figures called giants and dragons, a word used here for any mythical beast.

Antwerp's procession

Antwerp's ommegang dates from the 14th century and was kept on 15 August. Two processions ran there each year: the Sinksenommegang on Pentecost Sunday, and the Onze Lieve Vrouwommegang on the first Sunday after the Assumption of Mary. Between the 15th and the 17th centuries it was the leading ommegang of Flanders. The feast of the Assumption gave the Onze Lieve Vrouwommegang its religious half. The other half was grand and worldly: guilds, crafts and chambers of rhetoric each built a float for the march through the streets. Some floats recalled what had happened in the town during the year before, and the guilds competed fiercely to look the finest.

The order of the parade

In the 1600s the Antwerp ommegang followed a set order. The 27 Trades came first, then the Zottekens, people from the Saint Rochus madhouse, whose place in the line was meant to win them acceptance and to prompt prayers for mental health. Trumpets and a drum followed, then the skippers' ship, built for the 1549 Joyous Entry of Charles V and a sign of the city's wealth. Next came small foreign vessels, a whale remembered from the Scheldt, dolphins, Neptune and Amphitrite, an elephant with Fortuna, the giant Druon Antigoon, Brabo and young riders, the Muses on Mount Parnassus, a float of young women, a camel led by a dancing figure, and at the close the clergy and the guilds of fencers, arquebusiers, archers and crossbowmen, each with its saint.

Brussels and its legend

Brussels holds its ommegang each July. A tradition tells how a devout local woman, Beatrix Soetkens, was told in a vision by the Virgin Mary to take the wonder-working statue of Our Lady on the Little Stick out of Antwerp cathedral and bring it to her own city. As the story goes, she did so, and after a chain of miracles the statue reached Brussels by boat in 1348. It was enshrined at the Sablon, in the worship house of the crossbowmen's guild, which took it as its patron and promised a yearly procession. In 1549 the event was joined to the Joyous Entry of Emperor Charles V and his son Philip II, when leading families of the city staged grand equestrian shows through the Grand-Place and the Sablon.

Other towns and today

Elsewhere in Belgium the custom takes different shapes. Dendermonde stages the Ros Beiaard Ommegang once every ten years, when a huge wooden horse stands in the middle of the town and four boys from one family have the honour of riding it. The Ducasse at Ath is home to one of the biggest town giants, Gouyasse, another name for Goliath. Mechelen holds an ommegang once in twenty-five years as part of the Cavalcade of Hanswijck; it grew out of a procession around the walls that began in 1330 to thank Saint Rumbold for lifting a siege. Maaseik keeps one every twenty-five years for the relics of Saints Herlindis and Relindis, moved long ago between two churches; the latest was in 2022.

How Ommegang is kept

Town guilds, crafts and clergy carry the procession, and the townspeople watch from the streets. The line moves in a fixed order. Trades and guilds come with their floats and banners. Groups of giants, huge figures carried or pulled by people, are the centre of many versions. Horses, riders and musicians take part. In Brussels the procession still follows the old route through the city. Some towns add a wooden horse that boys ride, or a giant that stands in the square. Often the parade remembers a saint, a relic or a past event in the town's life.

When and where

Antwerp kept its ommegang on 15 August and on Pentecost Sunday. Brussels holds its own every July. Dendermonde's comes once in ten years. Mechelen and Maaseik each wait twenty-five years between one and the next, the last at Maaseik being in 2022. Other towns set their own dates.

The ommegang belongs to the Low Countries, the land that is now Belgium, the Netherlands and northern France. The best recorded versions are Belgian: Antwerp, where the custom was the leading one in Flanders, and Brussels, which keeps a large July procession. Dendermonde, Ath, Mechelen and Maaseik each have their own.

What Ommegang means

For the towns that keep them, ommegangs are acts of thanks and belonging. They honour a patron saint or a relic, and they mark the favour a town believes it has received. The giants carry older meanings about luck, danger and the sea. In Brussels the statue of Our Lady stands for a promise made by a guild. Even the worldly parts, the ships, the animals and the riders, tell the town's own story back to itself.

Days Ommegang is marked

Questions people ask about Ommegang

See also

BullfightingA ritual contest between a bullfighter and a bull, kept in Spain and Latin AmericaTwelfth NightThe closing evening of the Christmas season, kept with cake, carols and wassailJirgaA traditional consultative council of elders that settles disputes through consensusTalking stickA carved staff that shows who may speak at a Northwest Coast gathering

Good reading and sources

• Ommegang on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.