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At Roland, im Select, it’s effervescence this Thursday, February 16th. Since 8 a.m., women have been flocking to this emblematic place. Nicole Thomson, companion of Roland, is obviously on the spot.
“It’s a tradition, we always start here. The procession leaves at 10:11 a.m. and we go to the Résidence Léoni before meeting at Place de la Coul for the handing over of the keys. Then we will go to the communal depot, then again to the Select, and again to the Coul. We missed two editions, 2021 and 2022, so we were very impatient”she says, not without offering to “test” the Woodberries, this eau-de-vie with red fruits.
But the crowd is already parting, to make way for Pandaa I (Yves de Sy), prince of this session. “It’s great, there are Alaaf everywhere! It’s a story of the heart, this carnival. It’s more than candy. In addition, we have the weather with us! This Thursday, the “old women” have the power, and the men (including the prince) are in the background. We don’t play the leading role, it’s the women!”
Another star of the day, Josy François, 80 years old since February 3. La Calaminoise continued with its 66th edition of Women’s Thursday. “I always made the procession”, she lets go, disguised as a harlequin. And to find it, nothing better than the “80” balloons!
The high point of the morning was therefore this meeting place de la Coul, the nerve center of this edition given the work on the place de l’église. The mayor Luc Frank was waiting there for the many Calaminoises, disguised as a knight “because’ on (Editor’s note: the German-speaking Community) has just bought the castle of Eyneburg “. “We feel that people are happy to party again. There are people”, he observes. This is confirmed by Marie-Thérèse Beckers, president of the committee of old women. “We were a little scared, after two years of Covid, but we have as many women as before! We are more than 1,500, that’s really good.”
It was definitely this Thursday that we were able to realize how much this atmosphere had been missed by the carnivalists, the Calaminois, the children (about thirty classes just for the municipal establishment, according to Ms. Gil)… in summary, to a resolutely festive region!
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