No pirate suit but a curtain, smock or lampshade. Not many tens of thousands of people, but a small club. In Bergen op Zoom they celebrate the Eleventh of the Eleventh very differently: there they traditionally dance around the goat.
The ritual only takes half an hour. At eleven past eleven on the evening of the Eleventh of the Eleventh, people dance in a large circle around the statue of the Goat of Mie d’n Os. They do the seven jump. The goat also receives a wreath. “Every resident of Bergen is very proud of this tradition,” beams expert Eric Elich, who has written several books about Bergen traditions.
The ‘Goat of Mie d’n Os‘ is the Bergse Lent symbol. In Bergen op Zoom they are talking about it fasting instead of about carnival, that is also different. The monument has been there since 1960 and since then people have danced around the statue in the Krabbegat.
The legend of the goat goes back several centuries ago. After a farmer with the nickname d’n Os Verbiest. His daughter called everyone Mie d’n Os. When the soldiers marched past Mie’s house, she and her goat always danced happily to the music.
Everything went well until the animal made a bad jump and ended up in the barbed wire. It was created as a result of this leap of faith Lent song about the goat of Mie d’n Os.
Few top slotters
No busy opening with many tens of thousands of people and no invasion of top slotters on the Eleventh of the Eleventh in the Krabbegat. “About a thousand people. The real Bergen resident is coming,” Elich knows. “It’s more intimate. You really have to understand it. It’s also very solemn, not a hos party. You really make a promise to the goat for a nice fasting.”
No banana suit, no, in the Krabbegat you come in a curtain, with a lampshade or birdcage on your head or in a smock. No après-ski music, but wind bands and music in dialect. These traditions also seem popular among young people, which is not always the case in other cities. “It is a celebration of recognition. We do everything to preserve traditions,” explains the expert.
At eleven past eleven on Tuesday evening there will be a lot of fun around the goat on the Bleekveldje. “It will be the most beautiful party of the year. We say that every year,” laughs Elich. “Agge mar leut et.”
The song about the goat from 1960:
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