The crossing. © Emilien Hofman
The crossage
In the south of Hainaut, the game of crossage can count on the local workforce to perpetuate its tradition during Shrove Tuesday. A retired carpenter, José Fagot manufactures 200 sticks each year similar to giant hammers and 600 cholettes, a kind of egg. “I make them with a wood lathe thanks to donations that I receive. It is mostly ash, which is very elastic and resistant”, explains the octogenarian, former King of crossage in 2006. Every year, he makes an appointment with his friends to take a short walk in the streets of Chièvres or Vaudignies. The objective is to hit the cholette with his butt to move it from bar to bar by touching the empty barrel located in front of each of them. The winner is the one who makes the fewest shots.
This distant cousin of golf is rather mischievous – every three tries, an opponent is allowed to “décholer”, that is to say to hit the cholette of another to keep it away from the goal -, but it unites each year between 1,500 and 1,700 people in Chièvres. “No passing cars: the pedestrian is kingenthuses Bob Coppieters, president of the Friends of the crossage of the city. It’s still great to reclaim the street, especially since Chièvres is a small, formerly medieval town that is very closed and rounded, which makes the game easier. The cobblestones, on the other hand, provide the fun side.” Dangerous, too, since everyone is playing at the same time and it is difficult to predict the trajectory of these wooden balls. Fronts and participants are therefore insured and it is mandatory to warn the assembly before each attempt by shouting “Cholette”. “People care about this game, there are even Americans who come every year to play itsmiles Bob. It’s an opportunity to meet friends you only see once a year. At the end, there is always the tradition of the herring meal or, at the very least, the restaurant to talk about our shots. Like real hunters.”
The bourle
In the Tournai region, the survival of the legendary bourles depends, among other things, on village festivals and public holidays. During the last carnival, in Pottes, Patrick Wagon and his friend René Lemaire organized a party reserved for children. “A real success, remembers Patrick, a bearded man with a hat. What a joy to see these kids spend all day without a tablet, without a phone, without anything. Only to play this balls.“That day, the former president of the Tournaisis Federation gave them his tips. The bourle, this big disc of wood about fifteen centimeters wide, must be launched to follow the bourloir, a curved track about twenty meters long, and arrive as close as possible to the etaque, a sort of target. The game is played between two teams of four or five. The first aims for the etaque then tries to hinder the opponent, who then tries to avoid these obstacles to get closer to the goal. “The game is said to date back to when the Dutch would come by barge to fix the local windmills and didn’t give a damn between repairscontinues Patrick. So they would take the old bearings from the mills and play in the bottom of the barge, which was curved.”
This swimming pool builder would have even seen an article of law of the city of Lille dating from the 13th century and stipulating the prohibition made to the children to play the bourle on the street under penalty of being beaten with blows of stick. “Heilli”, “Buquer”, “Caréoleur”… Playing a game of bourle means diving into the Picard patois and therefore the heritage of this very playful region. “After disappearing with the cafes, the game returns as young people create teams to compete for the official championshiprejoices Patrick. The problem, from now on, it is to have bourloirs: many were recorked by the tenants of coffee.“Some time ago, after a slightly more festive aperitif, Patrick decided with René to renovate an abandoned plot of land in Pottes and create another one. “Originally, the games were made with a mixture of clay, rye flour, beer and cow dung. As no one knows the formula anymore, we had to adapt. But both fields are very good!”
© Emilien Hofman
The vertical bird shot
The existence of traditional games is often linked to the history of the region. Archery, for example, would have become fun once the guilds of archers and crossbowmen who defended the Brabant cities abandoned their military, or at least warlike, character. “These societies of archers continued to shoot every year to elect the Roy of the society. The goal was to land a dummy bird attached to a church or a windmill wingsays Jacques Raepsaet, curator of the Archery Museum. The shot was vertical, because it allowed the public to follow it easily while remaining safe at a certain distance..” Every Thursday, Jacques finds other amateurs in a strange shed on rue Auguste Lannoye, in Genval. Everyone has their bow, compound or wooden, everyone has their eye riveted on the model, the end of the arrow, and 28 meters above, on this portcullis filled with plastic birds.
The further they are positioned, the more points they earn. It requires good eyesight, precision and an undeniable luck factor, smiles Jacques, who assesses the beginnings of this activity at the end of the 18th century. Outside, it was too cold in winter, so people didn’t practice between All Saints’ Day and Easter. Until 1928, when the Rixensart stationery company financed the construction of the covered Perche tower. Today listed as a Walloon heritage, it is one of the few buildings of its kind to still stand in Belgium, invested by the Rixensart Archery Club and its fifteen members, mainly seniors. “The number of members and activities have been declining sharply for several yearsrecognizes the sniper. There are many other sports offers and the competition lasts between 4 and 4:30 a.m. Despite everything, we remain open to anyone curious for an initiation..”
© Emilien Hofman
The toss of the bundle
All eyes are on him. The volume of the fair has decreased by several tones. The dozens of spectators are captivated, almost stressed by what is at stake. Alone in the center of this impressive amphitheater, Christophe seizes the fork. He raises his eyes to the sky, executes a slight jump, then lifts the 11 kilos of the parallelepiped of straw that he has pierced and sends the whole thing 5.70 m higher, without touching the horizontal bar. This professional heating engineer is the winner of the 2022 bundle throwing competition at the Serinchamps fair, near Ciney. But nothing to brag about.
“With my brother, we have already gone beyond poles, 6.20m for me, 7m for him. It takes strength, technique and good positioning in relation to the cart… When I was a kid, I did it on my godfather’s farm.“In the past, bales were mainly harvested using pitchforks. To make the cart as profitable as possible, the pickers followed it in the fields, throwing the packages higher and higher. The increase in production and the development of agricultural machinery gradually made the technique obsolete. Bale throwing had to find a new niche: Sunday afternoons at the fair. To turn into unifying and spectacular entertainment.
