I live in Anderlues, Belgium, which is very close (about 10 km) from Binche, a city renowned for its carnival that happens once a year on Mardi Gras. As it happens, Mardi Gras is today, so I thought I'd pop up and explain a bit about what takes place in Binche during these festivities, now recognized by UNESCO as cultural world heritage.
Here is a description of the carnival, straight from the official website: http://www.carnavaldebinche.be
This is all official and boring stuff. The fun stuff actually comes from being there, though to be honest I'm not a great fan of the carnival in Binche, for two reasons: first, it is a carnival steeped in tradition, and I find that it often goes in the way of fun; then it also thousands of people each year, which means the streets are overcrowded, you can barely see the processions of the gilles with all the people standing in your way, it is nearly impossible to find friends in the throng of people and going to have a drink in a pub is made very difficult and not that much fun.
For me, the most fun to be had happens the week after the carnival in Binche, when the carnival of my small hometown takes place. There, nothing gets in the way of fun; you can approach the gilles without any problem and getting in pubs to have a drink seems to be the only reason the carnival is taking place! It also helps that I know a lot more people than I do in Binche, since you have a lot more fun in a group than on your own sipping on a beer.
But the part that is missing from the official description is really what happens on a personal basis. How does one become a gille, what happens to him throughout the day. Though I am not one myself, I have friends and family who are and I have followed them from the early hours to the evening.
It first starts with them donning the costume of the gille in what is called bossage, when the wife or mother stuffs the costume with straw, easily doubling the girth of the gille. Friends are then invited to join, where they are welcomed with a glass of champagne and oysters (at around 6 am, that's not my favorite breakfast, so I skip the oysters and only drink champagne!). A batteur, a musician playing the drums, then comes to the house playing one of the many tunes of the carnival to pick up the gille. Together, they leave and go to pick up other gilles, going from house to house and having a drink with the friends and family of the gilles.
In a group, they then move towards their local, usually a pub in town that serves as the place where musicians' repetitions and other meetings take place, to join the rest of the members of their société, basically an organization in charge of making sure everything is ready for the carnival, such as the musicians and the oranges the gilles will throw in the afternoon as well as the organization of the festivities hand in hand with the town officials.
The société then moves to the town hall where gilles who have reached a milestone (5, 10, 20 years of taking part in the carnival) are handed a medal by the mayor. They then go back to their local and do a rondeau, dancing in circle to tune of the drums. They then separate and each gille goes back to his house for lunch, accompanied by a batteur.
In the afternoon, once lunch is finished, all the gilles of the town go back to their local and then all sociétés congregate to the place where the cortège will start. The cortège is a procession through the main street of all the gilles of the town towards the city square. It is at this time that the gilles don their famous hat with ostrich feathers if the weather permits it (rain would damage it and wind makes it too heavy to wear) and that they throw oranges towards the crowd. Nice gilles will even come and offer people and children to take oranges straight from their basket.
In small towns, but not in Binche, the gilles will stop during the cortège in various pubs along the way where they will have a drink together and with the other people in the pub. The musicians usually play a tune in the pub and all the people inside start dancing together.
At the end of the day, once the cortège has reached the city square, a big rondeau uniting all the gilles and musicians of the town takes place. In my hometown of 11.000 inhabitants, that means around 300 gilles and around 100 musicians. A lot of people from the town are around the city square watching the rondeau and dancing to the music.
Once the rondeau is over, all the sociétés move back towards their local to have the last drink of the day. The people in attendance usually go back to a pub of their choice, having drinks with friends they met during the day. If you have a child, you also usually go to the kermesse (again, not present in Binche – did I not tell you that due to tradition they were missing on a lot of fun?), some kind of fair with carousels, arcades and a lot of good food… well, it tastes good but I'm not too sure a doctor would tell you it's good for you!
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