Carnival
Carnival is also an ancient tradition in our region. This refers both to a heathen festival celebrating the return of the sun after a long dark winter, and a final fling before the fortnight of fasting for Christians in Medieval times. Carnival as we currently know it only emerged in the 19th century. The carnival tradition is especially rife in Dutch Limburg, Maasland and the Voer region. Parades are organised in almost every municipality in Limburg, before, during and after the fasting. However, carnival activities last even longer: some festivities start as early as the autumn.
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Shooting Guilds
Emerging from the shooting guilds that existed in the sixteenth and seventeenth century to help maintain law and order in the Limburg countryside, associations founded in the nineteenth-century organised recreational shooting matches. During an annual bird contest, the various shooting guilds each crown their own king, although the true ambition of every Limburg shooting guild is to win the Old Limburg Shooting festival (OLS). The forerunner to the OLS was an international shooting contest, held in Grevenbicht back in 1879. Since the start of this century, shooting guilds from the whole of Dutch Limburg and Belgian North Limburg have competed during this OLS. Each year, over 150 shooting guilds, led by ‘bielemen’, march in with their drummers, standard bearers, flag wavers, victualers, sutlers, kings, queens and emperors. There are contests in disciplines such as drumming, flag-waving and exercises, not to mention elections for the most beautiful king, queen and royal couple.