When you think of Brabant traditions, you soon think of carnival, the sausage roll and the Brabant language. But the province also has dozens of unknown traditions. All 125 typical customs have now been bundled by Brabants Heem in a book.
wives lugging
In Gilze en Rijen, the ‘Wives Carrying’ game is one of the highlights of the carnival every year. The man drives a woman in a wheelbarrow from bar to bar and at each bar they carry out an assignment. The runner must be a man and his passenger must be a woman.
“You notice that traditions change over the years. Nowadays it is not only men who walk behind the wheelbarrow, but also women dressed as men, for example. And vice versa, there are also men in a dress in the wheelbarrow,” says writer and former director of the knowledge center intangible heritage Ineke Stouken.
cookie cutter
Lottery stalls have been standing at the fair in Udenhout for years. The one with the winning ticket won a fairground cake. In the last century, only the poorest people received a maternity permit to earn some extra money. In 1905 the tradition threatened to disappear due to the new Lottery Act. Lotteries were allowed to be held for a good cause, but not for personal gain.
The mayor of Udenhout devised a way to circumvent the rules. The rich applied for a cookie lottery license, with the aim of preserving the fair. They did not go to the stall themselves, but let the very poorest of Udenhout do so. In this way the poor could still earn extra money. Today, the cookie lottery is still a popular attraction at the fair.
“There used to be lottery stalls at many fairs. These have disappeared almost everywhere due to the new law. At the time, the mayor’s efforts were intended to continue to help the poor, but this also kept a tradition alive in Udenhout,” says writer Tjeu van Ras.
Kids watching
It is tradition to go on a maternity visit when a baby is born, and in Rijsbergen they have been doing that in a special way for seventy years. There the harmony visits a number of children born in that year on the last day of the fair.
Traditionally, the harmony accompanies the guild to and from the royal shooting. While waiting, so much beer was often drunk that the musicians went to fetch the guild drunk. In 1950 Harrie de Leeuw invited the entire marching band to his home to watch his newborn child as a pastime while waiting. That’s how the tradition was born.
“We asked 124 local history circles and heritage associations to steer one tradition. We had not received anything from Rijsbergen, because they ‘have no traditions there’. When I heard about watching kids and asked about it at the local history circle, they said: that’s so common. But those habits are traditions,” Strouken explains.
“What also makes this tradition so special is that you know where and when it originated. It is impossible to trace that about many traditions, because traditions are so common. They are not written down or preserved,” adds Van Ras.
The fact that the Brabants Heem Foundation was able to fill a book full of Brabant traditions is unique. “Brabant is the only province in the Netherlands with local history circles. They are at the heart of the local society and they know a lot about the history and traditions at their core. That is why Brabant is the only province that can now still collect and write down the knowledge of intangible heritage, i.e. traditions.”
