Geraardsbergen krakelingen feast and fire

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Dark Rye and Honey Cake: Festival baking from the heart of the Low Countries

Published 2023

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A legend tells us of the siege of Flemish Geraardsbergen in 1381 by a fearless local nobleman Walter Van Edingen. His strategy was to starve the people of Geraardsbergen, but when the last remnants of bread and herring were thrown over the city wall as a signal of abundance, the besiegers gave up, discouraged and tired of waiting. The people of Geraardsbergen then waited for dusk and created a bonfire on the mount of their town to let the neighbouring towns know they got rid of the enemy and needed help. And every year since, a barrel of tar would be taken up to the same mount and a fire would be lit.

Reality, however, was less romantic, as the whole town of Geraardsbergen was actually destroyed that day. But the people of Geraardsbergen refuse to tell that story, although they recognise that it happened. They choose to tell the tale of non-violent resistance instead.

To commemorate the siege, Geraardsbergen started celebrating the krakelingenfeest (pretzel feast) on the first Sunday of Lent, making it the carnival of this quaint town in the Flemish Ardennes. The festivities of the day start with a parade through the streets depicting the history of the town. Wicker baskets filled with pretzels are carried along with the procession and up the cobblestone path of the Oudenberg, the mount from the legend. The mount was adorned with a chapel in 1640 (the current structure is a copy from 1906), but the belief is that the mount was used by druids for rituals on solstices and equinoxes. De Volksstem newspaper of 1 September 1900 tells of a belief that the hill used to be where witches gathered for Sabbath.

Whatever the meaning given to the mount through the ages, it was common to build a chapel on a location that had been important to pre-Christian traditions, thereby Christianising the customs connected to it instead of eradicating it and risking public outcry.

Today the mount and its narrow cobblestone path is mainly known abroad as the finale of one of the most challenging stretches of the ‘Tour of Flanders’ cycle race.

The fish mentioned in the myth also have a place in the celebrations. After the parade has arrived at the mount, the dean, the mayor, the aldermen and the municipal councillors each drink a small living fish from a bowl of wine. Some say it is a sign of celebration and fraternity; others say it is a symbol of new life as spring is coming. It can also be seen as sacrificial.

Between 1590 and 1608, a local poet, playwright, and school principal Josse Schollaert wrote a poem in Latin about the annual celebration in Geraardsbergen, showing us that in the 16th century, the tradition was already in full swing.17

After the fish were ceremonially gobbled up, it was time

For the krakelingenworp to throw the pretzels from the top

Of the mount and into the greedy hands of the public.

A magazine15 from 1879 describes in great detail and with much spectacle the happenings of the festivities and the joy of the spectators. At this time it wasn’t just pretzels, but also wicker baskets filled with dried herrings and oranges that were carried up to the mount. These would all be tossed from the hill into the crowds, the herrings making a clattering sound like hail hitting the cobblestones. I imagine there would have been casualties at this annual event in the past, as the magazine mentions that after the pretzels, herrings, oranges and figs, whole baskets filled with goodies were chucked down at the people who all desperately tried to catch them. In any case, those who were unlucky not to have caught any prize could buy something from the many stalls that had set up around the hill, for exorbitant prices, the author claims.

A British priest wrote a letter about this custom to the novelist Guido Gezelle in 1858.18 He had just witnessed what he described as a ‘strange custom’ on the hill in Geraardsbergen, where many people had flocked to witness the mayor drink from an ancient cup that contained a live fish. Afterwards, fish and bread were thrown to the crowd.

The pretzel from Geraardsbergen is made as a ring just like the Swedish kringlor pretzel. An article from 1895 in De Volksstem reports that the pretzels were baked hard. Crucial to the story of Belgium, the author also mentions that Walloons and Flemings came together to take part in the celebrations and to battle it out for a koek. Geraardsbergen is situated just a few kilometres from the language border.