Belgium
...tewed in beer and waterzooi, which is chicken or fish chowder. Belgian people speak either Dutch, French, or German. There are many festivals in Belgium. One of the most popular festivals is the March of the Gilles. During the March of the Gilles boys and men dress up in brightly colored suits and they wear hats filled with ostrich feathers. They throw oranges at people in the crowd and boys that aren’t dressed up blow up sheep bladders and hit anyone not wearing a fancy hat. The Gilles supposedly represent the Inca Indians who were defeated and the oranges represent gold taken by the Spanish. Also, the towns people leave their doors open so some guests can call into the house and have a glass of champagne. Another popular festival is the Cat Festival, which is held each May in Ypres. During the Cat Festival people throw toy cats off of the Cloth Hall, which is a tall building. This festival represents the time in which people threw cats off of the Cloth Hall because there was too many. Also during the festival a mock witch is burned at the stake and there is a large firework show afterwards. There are also many medieval festivals in Belgium. Belgium’s major sport is soccer, which is the major sport of many countries. Other sports in Belgium include tennis, horseback riding, boating, and hiking. There are also two strange sports in Belgium that the people in Western Europe would know about. One is called pigeon racing in which pigeons fly across Spain, France, and Belgium. More than one hundred pigeons can be entered into one contest. Another strange sport is sand sailing. The craft in sand sailing is called a sand yaught and is built just like sailboats except they are made for land not water. Belgium has a constitutional, representative government, an...