When we tried calling the Boon brewery to arrange a visit (which we did several times) there was no answer. On the Saturday before Easter we decided just to drive the Bruegel route (a challenge in itself) which took us to Lembeek. Being there we decided to try to find the brewery (for future reference stand at the main entrance to the church with your back to the church, the brewery is on the lane directly in front of you a few hundred yards) and to ask Frank about the procession that Jackson mentions occurs on Easter Monday.
When we got to the brewery there were two small children out front. We checked the brewery office, no one there. Went inside the brewery, no one visible. Finally we rang at the house adjacent to the brewery and were lucky to find Frank's wife who found Frank for us. He said he was too busy to give us a brewery tour, and spoke with us for a few minutes. Finally we decided to go and leave him to his business but asked if we could ask one last question. so we asked about this procession on Monday.
Well this really got him going and I guess he decided he wasn't that busy after all as he spent over 30 minutes telling us about this (more info on that later). Finally he said we could just look around the brewery and he would go back to working. So we wandered about a little then went back to the car and got some of the fabled Caution Lambic Brewer t-shirts Mike Sharp had made up for us for use as thank you gifts to people who were nice to us. We also got out a bottle of New England blueberry cider I had brought for similar purpose. Upon heading back into the brewery to give this to Frank he decided he was a little less busy than he thought :-) this time he took us back to where the casks were and opened up first a one year old, then a three year old gueze for us to taste straight from the barrel. It was quite a treat.
While it might have been nice to have a formal tour, we basically got to see all of what there was to see around the brewery. It is probably one of the least impressive breweries you will see from the standpoint of being visually appealing. However Frank is really quite a nice person and it was very good to be able to meet him even if the Van Roy's over at Cantillion don't consider him a "real" lambic brewer (I think they really only consider themselves as such).
At about 8 or 8:30 on the morning of Easter Monday a procession leaves the town of Lembeek for a 20 kilometer jaunt around the town. In reality this is actually several processions each with slightly different itineraries, Leaving from different points. Originally the procession was a religious march. It was first done during the time of the black plague. The church leaders wanted to protect the town from the evil which was killing people (having no knowledge of disease causes). The manner they chose to do this was to take the relic of St. Veronus (basically a relic of a Saint is the saints bones, well bones they believe are the Saint's since you don't get to be a Saint until you are long dead) which is kept in a very elaborate box called a reliquary, and march it around the town limits. St. Veronus is the patron Saint of the town of Lembeek. Because the reliquary is silver, gold and jewel encrusted it needed to be protected, so a procession of town people was assembled to join the march as a guard.
The procession was done every year and subsequently became a tradition long after the plague had ended. The town evolved from being in a bend in the river with a fortified wall and tower protecting it to a larger town surrounding this fortification. Eventually the fortified part in the bend in the river was abandoned (the town moved outside the wall around 1640 ) and is now a nature preserve. The procession still marches around the original town limits.
In 1830 or so when Belgium became independent and a national army was formed soldiers from Lembeek were given a holiday to join the procession. As army uniforms changed over the years old ones were made available to the town for the town people to use in the procession. Today there are several processions which occur as part of the celebration. Of course the religious procession still occurs and follows the original route. Other processions choose a route based upon the location of bars and restaurants conveniently located along the approximate original route. Thus the procession has for most people become an all day party, with a pre-arranged lunch stop and much drinking. The procession returns to town around 5 or 5:30 in the afternoon.
A side note on patron saints: If you go into the church in Lembeek notice the pillars and the signs hung from them. The sign posts are in the shape of dragons. This is not a traditional religious design. It reflects the brewing history of the town. Previously a brewery named Brasserie du Dragon was located there in the late 19th century. The brewery donated these signs to the church. The brewery took its name from the legend of St. George who killed the Dragon. St. George was considered a patron Saint of the lambic brewers while St. Veronus was a patron Saint of the town itself. If you go to the Cantillion brewery you may notice in the posters on the wall old brewing labels which have a dragon in them. also there is a picture of JP Van Roy with George Schulz, former secretary of state, standing in front of a Cantillion logo with a dragon on it. This symbol was used by many lambic brewers into the early part of this century.
All this is of course via Frank Boon, so any embellishments or misinformation comes from him and not me.
Last Updated: 16 August, 1995
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