Laetare Tuesday. The Humps Burning is a typical tradition in its representation. It symbolises the end of the carnival, but in the hope nourished by every Gille in his heart of heart : to begin afresh the feast in one year (Studios J.-B. Boels, Jolimont).
Time goes on and it is Tuesday already for the carnival. Its is with this state of mind that the Gille puts up his bright costume but with the long-awaited perspective of the "Humps Burning", a tradition appeared in 1878 and peculiar to La Louvière Carnival.
Sumptuously for the last time, the scene takes place in the city centre at 9 o'clock in the evening. It presents itself nowadays a big fire upon which a Gille costume stuffed with straw is hanged. The dummy is consuming slowly. The Gilles surround the spectacle, the city centre lights up and the dancing shadows animated themselves along the façades. Musicians alternate classical tunes with the burning typical tunes having a slower tempo. This alternate is reflecting the state of mind and the symbolism of that last feast day. Certainly, at every drum roll which ends, a little bit of carnival is going away. And even more on the Tuesday, each clog pounding brings the Gille closer to that fateful instant where he will have to give up his role and his costume... Yet it does not matter finally, in one year, the feast will take back its rights and it is so few in a folklore passionate's eyes : six months of memory and six months of projects !
Laetare Tuesday. The dummy is made of a Gille costume stuffed with straw. Successively taken near the fire and taken off, it consumes slowly. This tradition is one of the height moment of the Laetare (CRS Collection).
The Humps Burning is typical in its representation and is one of the inescapable moment of the Laetare. It was instituted in the last century by the "Vieux Gilles du Hocquet" (Old Gilles of the hiccup) society. The participants were then really extracting and burning the straw of their costumes. Of course, at that time, the Carnival was always ending immediately after the Burning which is not the case anymore : nowadays, it carries on up to the Wednesday dawn and goes to sleep for one year only with the returning of the last Gilles, at daybreak. In the old times, all the societies followed, each one organising its own Humps Burning in the neighbourhood where their premises were. The tradition is still perpetuated nowadays : on Laetare Tuesday, La Louvière lights up and the spectacle takes over the city.
During this last day, the Gille will end his trip as he started it : with the sound of the drum roll. During the Laetare, the night carnival takes place every night, from 10 o'clock up to the next dawn (Gilles Society "Les Boute-en-Train", Studios Carole Heymans)
Download MP3 version of the "Humps Burning"
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