Ducasse de Mons (Doudou)

The golden chariot

The Ducasse de Mons, affectionately called the Doudou, is first mentioned in 1248. A persistent but mistaken legend links it to the plague of 1349, when the shrine of St Waltrude, patroness of the town, was carried in procession. In 1352 its date was fixed on Trinity Sunday. Over the centuries the religious procession gained a civic character, and since 1440 it has included the combat of St George and the dragon. It was banned and restored several times — by Emperor Joseph II in 1786, by French revolutionaries, by King William I — and regained its vigour around 1930. It is part of UNESCO’s inscription of the processional giants and dragons of Belgium and France.

On Saturday evening, in a religious ceremony, the shrine is taken down from its altar in the Collegiate Church of St Waltrude and handed to the town authorities, followed by a torchlit procession. On Sunday morning it is placed on the Car d’Or, a gilded chariot drawn by draught horses through the streets with guilds representing the region’s history. At the end, the chariot must climb the steep, cobbled Rampe Sainte-Waudru, and hundreds of people push from behind. Local superstition holds that if it does not reach the top in one go, the town will suffer misfortune — which is said to have happened in 1803, 1914 and 1940.

The Lumeçon

Between half past twelve and one o’clock, on the Grand-Place, St George fights a dragon about ten metres long, its tail tipped with horsehair. The dragon is moved by the “white men” and helped by devils armed with inflated bladders who strike at St George’s defenders, the Chinchins, and at the crowd. A week later the shrine is returned to its church with great ceremony.