I've joined my husband (a high school social studies teacher), 22 grade 10-12 students, 1 parent and 4 teacher supervisors for a Commemorating Canada tour of France/Belgium/Germany. We've visited key WWI and WWII sites in which Canadian soldiers played a prominent role. While I enjoyed the military history aspects of the tour, my focus had been scouring each country for folklore references, the supernatural, or the fantastical.

Take Belgium for instance. When we first arrived in Ypres, my heart was captured by the amazing medieval / gothic architecture. As I began to take photos I noticed sculptures of cats crawling up buildings, cat shaped chocolates in shop windows, as well as cat sculptures guarding store windows. I asked our lovely tour guide, Christine, why all the cats?

Of course, there was a supernatural element to her explanation that I quickly recorded for future investigation and this is what I discovered. The town and surrounding Flanders area is home to many WWI memorials and also hosts a rather unusual festival every three years. The next one will be held on May 13, 2012.

The Cat Festival has been celebrated for over 40 years. Townspeople dress in cat costumes and there’s a parade with medieval and modern representations of cats (Garfield is the highlight) and even throw toy cats from the church. Witches are also featured, a mock burning is held in the town square. The festival pays tribute to the burning times of the 18th century and the legend that cats were seen as witches familiars and thus tossed from the church’s bell tower.

From these macabre origins, today the people of Ypres embrace all that is feline.

I found this blog post which has a bevy of photos from one of the festivals: http://www.catcollectors.com/ieper.html