Kattenstoet (The Belgian Cat Festival) : Origins & Celebration Facts

As a cat lover, can you think of anything more awesome than a parade dedicated to cats? If I've already piqued your fancy by using "cat" and "parade" in the same sentence, you might want to start planning a trip to Belgium.

The Kattenstoet (which literally translates to "the Cat Parade") occurs in a small town named Ypres on the French border of Belgium on the second Sunday of May every three years. While this beloved festival celebrates cats, it's based on a rather horrific tradition of the townsfolk of Ypres once engaged in annually.

Read on to learn more about this unique festival, including its history and what to expect if you plan to attend in the future.

What Happens During the Festival?

The Kattenstoet parade operates much like any other parade—the participants build elaborate floats, hand-sew costumes, and put on performances. It’s not unusual to see modern depictions of cats in this history-focused festival, either. For example, there’s one particularly popular float with a humongous Garfield cat peeking out from a cardboard box.

While most of the festival is feline-focused, some aspects of the parade have nothing to do with cats. Attendees may spot knights in chainmail walking around with spears or folks dressed in medieval garb clutching pieces of fabric. This is just part of the tribute to the town's history and humble beginnings in cloth manufacturing.

The townspeople of Ypres participate in the festival by decorating their shops with cat displays or baking cat-shaped buns or cookies.

After the parade procession, someone dressed in a jester costume tosses stuffed kitties from the belfry to the eagerly awaiting townspeople below, who hope to catch one of the plushies.

After the jester has run out of cats to toss, a mock witch-burning event occurs, in which the crowd sets a puppet witch aflame.

The festival is a popular tourist event in Belgium, bringing in thousands of visitors and strengthening the local tourism economy. Event organizers expected 50,000 spectators to come from near and far to watch the 2024 parade.

How Did the Parade Come to Be?

While the parade celebrates our adoring relationship with our cats, it wasn't always this way in Ypres.

During the Middle Ages, the town's primary industry was cloth making. Cloth makers would use cats to keep their warehouses free of fabric-destroying vermin. These cats were free to roam Ypres as they liked during the winter months, but when they started reproducing too quickly, the town officials realized they were in over their heads. Cats were overrunning the town, and they didn't know what to do to address the sudden overpopulation. They soon decided it only made sense to get rid of them.

Instead of shipping them off somewhere or dealing with them humanely, they decided to toss cats from the belfry tower to their deaths. They would do this annually during the second week of Lent on a day they referred to as "Cat Wednesday." This tradition continued for hundreds of years into the 1800s.

It's also important to remember that, at the time, cats were associated with witchcraft and evil, so getting rid of them was much celebrated, and many looked forward to the event.

Thankfully, the last time a live cat was thrown off the belfry was in 1819.

Ypres officials decided to reignite the tradition in 1937, except they chose to toss stuffed cats from the belfry instead of real ones. The goal was to acknowledge the town's complicated history with cats and also celebrate them. The tradition was put on the back burner during World War II but was back in full swing by 1946 when town officials added a parade to the fun.

When Is the Kattenstoet?

The Kattenstoet is typically held triennially on the second Sunday of May. The most recent festival was in May of this year, so if you're hoping to book a trip to attend the next one, you'll have to wait until 2027.

Final Thoughts

The Kattenstoet parade is something for cat lovers to add to their bucket list. Being surrounded by thousands of other feline-loving humans sounds like a great afternoon to me.

The festival is an excellent way for the town of Ypres to acknowledge its complicated history with cats while also recognizing how much they love and admire them today.

Featured Image Credit: Piqsels