Friday, April 6

Old Europe

Donald Rumsfeld may be gone but Old Europe appears to be alive and well in the minds of some other US opinion formers. Dan Bilefsky of The International Herald Tribune has headed to Aarschot and returned with a piece entitled Pining for power, modern Belgians return to the Middle Ages

Apparently..."Across this country of 10 million, a growing number of Belgians are trading in their jeans for suits of armor. They are rubbing stones together to make fire, eating their dinners out of cauldrons, re-enacting heroic battles and participating in mock hangings."

I know a fair few people who have visited the Rubens museum but has anybody noticed any of this slightly more extreme sort of carry on? Has it really become a "national passion"?

1 comment:

Daphne Wayne-Bough said...

These guys are often around at fairs and festivals, the 11th century Irish chieftain once invited me to shelter under his wolfskin. At least, I think he said wolfskin ....