Hopduvel Festival
The Hopduvel (Hopdevil) represents the storm that often hit Asse-Ternat at the end of the month of August. The hop vine crop, which was almost ready for harvest, could be severely damaged if the hop vines were knocked to the ground. it is thought that the ' hopduvel ' was invented by the hop farmers to personify this danger and was institutionalised by the founder of the “Hopduvelfeesten” (Hop Devil Festival), Eugeen Van den Broeck. Every year the Hopduvelfeesten is organised after the hop harvest in order to have a good harvest in the following years. This is symbolically done by burning the effigies of hopduvels that have been assembled by the local farmers and for which a contest is organised to elect the best (ugliest) Hopduvel. This tradition is still continued even though there has been very little hop production in the area since the 1970s
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Famous quotes containing the word festival:
“Sabbath. A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)