IJzerbedevaart: The Last Summer Pilgrimage to the IJzer

Abstract

Even the threat of rain, a constant in this area of Flanders, could not keep the pilgrims away from the day’s festivities. Most arrived wearing yellow raincoats, carrying yellow flags and umbrellas, and waving yellow scarves. The grounds of the IJzertoren were awash in yellow, the color of the Flemish flag. In appearance they were not much different from last year’s pilgrims. But the numbers were considerably smaller. This pilgrimage, the 85th, was the final one to be held on the last Sunday of August. After years of honoring the dead Flemish soldiers on this particular date, future pilgrimages will be held on Armistice Day, much to the dismay of some in the Flemish community. Some view the changes as a betrayal of the desires of the politically minded Flemish Front soldiers who died in the war. But the pilgrimage committee, looking to the declining numbers of the pilgrims, the rise of the IJzerwake, and their own re-direction of the three tenets of the Front Movement, nooit meer oorlog (no more war), zelbestuur (autonomy or self-government) and godsvrede (peace of God), has decided that the pilgrimage has served its purpose. The goals of the Front Movement, as the committee has interpreted them, have been realized, Flemish autonomy within Belgium — Federalism, has been achieved.