What’s on: Flanders rolls out the orange carpet for Halloween
Endless events around the region await this weekend, and beyond, for the holiday we love to fear
Halloween
The Historium in Bruges, for instance – kind of creepy at the best of times – ramps up the medieval atmosphere with pumpkins, spider webs and even dimmer lighting, until 4 November.
The famous Pumpkin Regatta in Kasterlee, Antwerp province, on 28 October sees contenders hollowing out giant – but really giant – pumpkins and then climbing in to race them across the lake. Anyone can sign up a team of four, though the deadline has passed for this year. It’s worth it just to watch, however, and a little festival at the lake provides activities and pumpkin soup, made fresh with the hundreds of kilos of scooped-out insides.
Flanders’ coastline, meanwhile, always steps up for Halloween, with activities in many municipalities, including a Halloween Fun Fair and parade in Blankenberge, a Creepy Clown party in Knokke and a Halloween breakfast and zombie race in Ostend. That largest of coastal cities is also home to Raversyde nature park, which hosts Halloween Anno 1465 in its historical buildings. It’s less scary than it sounds, consisting of workshops for kids on baking cookies and making spooky figures, just like it was done in the middle ages.
Reveil
All Saints’ Day is next week, and while many in Flanders want to spend the day in the traditional way – visiting the graves of their loved ones – some will join Flanders’ artists, musicians and poets to celebrate the connection between the living and the dead. Reveil is a festival held in cemeteries across the region, and this fifth edition sees nearly 100 events taking place, more than ever before. For one hour starting at 17.00, music is played, stories are told and people come together. Stories are central to the event, and a blog and a book have both been published that collect memories concerning the deceased. 1 November 17.00-18.00, across Flanders
Sensations: Between Passion and Pain
With a permanent collection devoted to the history of psychiatry in Belgium, the Dr Guislain Museum in Ghent is brilliant at staging temporary exhibitions that explore the darker recesses of mental illness. In Sensations: Between Passion and Pain it takes on the digital world and its effect on our everyday psyche. From email to social media, digital devices have made Big Brother a reality that is affecting many people – and especially young people – in very negative ways. The exhibition puts sensations – an overabundance or a lack thereof – in a cultural historical context, questioning how both isolation and constant stimulus takes a toll our bodies, minds and souls. Until 26 May, Guislain Museum, Jozef Guislainstraat 43, Ghent
