BELGIUM REJOICES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 115, 17 May 1930, Page 29

BELGIUM REJOICES

INDEPENDENCE MARKED

GREAT CEREMONIALS

The present year marks the hundredth, anniversary of the independence of Belgium, and a country-wide programme of festivities has been arranged, the Government announces, to last from April until September, with the cities of Antwerp and Leige conducting international expositions, which, it is expected, will attract visitors from all over the world. A national committee, organised by the Government, and composed, of leaders in the arts, science, trade, industry, finance and administration circles, has prepared a programme of celebrations both varied and colourful. LOCAL FESTIVITIES. Each province and each city will have its own festivities. In Antwerp, besides the International Exposition, which will consist of colonial, maritime and Flemish art, there will '<k a Venetian festival at night on tho Escaut. The city of Liege will organise a pageant of industry, and .will be the centre of an international exhibition of heavy industry, the sciences and their applications, and of ancient Walloon art. Among other cities that. will have colebrations of interest to foreigners aro Bi'uges, where an exhibition of ancient applied arts will be held, and a reconstruction of the famous pageant of tho Golden Fleece; Ghent will open in July an exhibition ,of floral decorative art; Namur will have a display of religious art, and on the Mleuse there will bo' a night festival in fairyliko scenery. WOULD FESTIVAL OF CHIMES Malines, the city of chimea, is preparing an international festival of chimes, or carillons, for 25th August. Mons will show the works of the old masters of Hainaut, and will assist in the historical representation of the reception of Charles V. and his followers by Marie of Hungary. A series of motor-car trips through the province of Hainaut will be conducted to enable tourists to visit ,the principal factories and' picturesque sites. ■ Brussels, as capital of tho country, will sponsor many celebrations, among which will be historical pageants, representing all the past of the Belgian provinces, from the Druidic period to the present. More than three thousand persons will take part. Wherever the tourist lands in Belgium in tho coming summer, he will be certain to find, from the Ardennes to the sea, a mingling of f olkloro and history in pageant and exhibition, all set on the stage of ancient. cities.