A multi-religious society
According to the latest Eurobarometer published by the European Commission in December 2018, the trend has nevertheless reversed over the last ten years, due to the rise of conservative values, especially on the Flemish side. This reactionary surge has also been reflected in voting figures. Christians have gone from 52.5% of the population in 2008 to 62.8% today. Catholics make up the almost exclusive majority (57.1% of the Belgian population), while Protestants number just 2.3% and Orthodox 0.6%. Only 5% of Belgians (especially Flemish) are churchgoers, compared with 12% in the 2000s.
Non-religious people make up the second largest group (29.3% of the population), mainly in the Walloon part of the country. Agnostics (who believe neither in the existence nor non-existence of God) are by far the majority in this group, making up 1/5th of the Belgian population (20.2%), ahead of atheists (who firmly believe in the non-existence of God) who number 9.1%.
Muslims, the third largest group, are estimated at just 6.8%, or 780,000 inhabitants, almost a third of whom live in Brussels-Capital (280,000 inhabitants), representing 24% of the population. The commune of Molenbeek, where 40% of the population is Muslim, half of whom are Moroccan, was home to Moroccan immigrant workers from Tangiers, Tetouan and the Rif, mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. In Wallonia, they represent 4.9% of the population (or 175,000 people), a rate roughly similar to that of Flanders at 5.1%, which is more populous (around 330,000 Muslims in the region).
Other religions account for just 1.1% of the population, including very few Jews (0.3%), and a few Buddhists and Hindus.
The repression of Protestants from the 16th to the 18th century
Although the Protestant Christian religion is virtually non-existent today, it has been very important in the country's history. Belgian Protestantism was born following the publication of Martin Luther's 95 theses in 1517, particularly in Tournai and Liège, where it became well established. The monks of the Augustinian convent in Antwerp converted, as did the monk Jean Castellan in Tournai, where the Reformation was introduced. By the second half of the 16th century, they were in the majority, earning Tournai the nickname "Geneva of the North". By 1540, Tournai was considered the stronghold of the Calvinist Reformers, followed by Antwerp and Ghent in the 1560s.
In the 1560s, at the height of the Belgian Reformation, Protestants numbered almost 300,000 in Belgium - around 20% of the population at the time! Mainly in the county of Flanders (Bruges, Ghent, Ypres) and the duchy of Brabant (Antwerp, Bréda, Brussels, Lierre), of course in Tournai and Liège, but also in Mons, Enghien, Limbourg, Eupen, the Outremeuse region and the Marquisate of Franchimont. The bloody repression of Protestants by the Crown of Castile provoked an uprising in 1567. Tensions eased on January 23, 1579, when the County of Flanders, the Duchy of Brabant and Tournai ratified the Union of Utrecht, which enshrined religious freedom. Between 1577 and 1585, Tournai, Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Antwerp, Ostend and Mechelen adopted republican governments under the influence of the Reformed.
But the Spanish re-conquest of the southern Netherlands during the 80 Years' War had the better of the Protestants, who had to either convert or flee. The predominantly Calvinist north of the Netherlands became independent after years of conflict, while the south, which corresponds to the boundaries of present-day Belgium, remained under the rule of the Spanish Habsburgs, with Catholicism as the state religion. Cities such as Tournai and Antwerp were depopulated when they fell in 1585, with a mass exodus of Protestant inhabitants. Violent persecution began and continued almost unabated, driving almost all Protestants to flee until the eighteenth centurye century. They settled mainly in the Protestant German principalities of the Palatinate and Brandenburg, but also in England, the United Provinces, Sweden and the New World, mainly South Africa in the wake of the Dutch. Important Belgian Reformed, Walloon and Flemish colonies were created in London, Frankfurt, Hanau, Magdeburg and Wesel, contributing to the development of these regions, as Belgium was prosperous at the time. From 1620 onwards, between 5,000 and 10,000 Walloons emigrated to Sweden, including the founder of the country's steel industry, Liège industrialist Louis de Geer. Clandestine "churches under the cross" continued to exist, however. It was not until 1781 that "freedom of conscience" was granted by an edict of tolerance from the Austrian Emperor Joseph II. With the creation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, Protestant King William I reorganized the churches, but most had long since fled Belgian lands.
Processions, ducasses and carnivals
Numerous processional festivals punctuate the Belgian calendar. These include the Assumption, celebrated on August 15 in Liège's Outremeuse region (procession of the Black Madonna and its folkloric festivities), and the procession of the Holy Blood in Bruges, carrying a reliquary of drops of Christ's blood soaked in a piece of earth brought back from Jerusalem by Thierry d'Alsace at the time of the Crusades. On the carnival front, Binche and its Gilles parade is the best-known and oldest (listed by UNESCO), but there are also carnivals in Malmedy and Stavelot near Liège, Grosse Biesse in Marche-en-Famenne and Ours d'Andenne near Namur, as well as Bruges and Aalst in Flanders. Ducasses (from "dedications") were originally processions in honor of the patron saint of each town. The processional giants and dragons present at carnivals, braderies, kermesses and ducasses are said to have medieval origins rooted in popular culture and tradition. They are part of UNESCO's intangible heritage. Each giant has its own story: they are born, baptized, married and have children like humans.
Popular beliefs
From Antiquity to the XIXe century, religion, legends, superstitions and even pagan rituals had a strong influence on mentalities. When paganism gave way to the Christian religion, the Church rejected anything that didn't conform to its dogmas. It didn't abolish ancestral feasts all of a sudden, but sanctified their purpose by applying them to Christian feasts that fell within a short period of time, creating a religious syncretism. We can cite the legend of the Bayard horse, which is still remembered, in writings, carnivals and period drawings.
The legend of Bayard
Since the Middle Ages, from the 12th to the 19th century, the Bayard horse has been an important Belgian legend, fantastic and marvelous, often mentioned in the famous chansons de gestes, especially in the Ardennes, in Liège and Dinant. Its existence can be traced back either to a Frankish myth (the reptilian mount of the giant Gargantua), or to that of a fairy-horse ridden by the Gallic and Roman goddess Epona in Celtic mythology. Folk processions and parades feature him among the giants of the North, at the Ducasse in Ath and the ommegang in Dendermonde. An engraving of Charlemagne's attempt to drown Bayard can still be seen today, on the Pont des Arches bridge in Liège. The Bayard horse is also represented by statues in Ghent and Dendermonde.
The story goes that Bayard, son of a dragon and a serpent, was a fairy-horse freed from a volcanic island by the enchanter Maugis, probably in the Sicilian islands of Lipari. Aymon de Dordonne came to present his four sons to Charlemagne, who, greatly impressed by the eldest, Renaud, gave him this marvelous mount. But the latter, in a fit of anger, kills the king's nephew after a game of chess. It was then that he fled, on Bayard's back, with his three brothers. Taking refuge in the Ardennes forest, pursued by Charlemagne's army, they try to return to their mother's home in Dordonne, but are chased away by their angry father, still a vassal of the Emperor.
Renaud then travels to Paris to taunt Charlemagne. He disguises Bayard as a lame horse to win a race, but is quickly recognized by a stirrup, whom he kills with a fatal kick. They flee south to Montauban, where they are caught by Charlemagne's army. Reduced to starvation during the siege of the town, they are forced to kill all their mounts in order to feed themselves, with the exception of Bayard. They finally managed to escape through an underground passage and were saved by Bayard's blood, which revived them and gave them strength. Charlemagne wanted to sign the peace treaty and, as a token, asked Renaud to go on pilgrimage to Palestine and hand over Bayard, who had always helped him out of desperate situations. Renaud agreed, and Bayard was sunk to the bottom of the river with a millstone around his neck, at Charlemagne's request. According to legend, he managed to escape and continues to haunt the Ardennes forest, staying well away from humans. He is said to have joined the hermitage of the enchanter Maugis, where his neighing can be heard every summer solstice.
