Belgium

In Belgium, football and cycling are the main popular sports. We have idols such as Eddy Merckx and football teams as RSCA Anderlecht (Brussels), FC Brugge (Bruges) and Standard de Liège.

Everybody has a bike and a lot of boys play football. Girls prefer dancing, gymnastics.

Children jump the trampoline in their garden or enjoy swimming in a small swimming pool in the garden.

Important days are Christmas (family day par excellence), New Year’s Evening (celebrated among friends), and New Year ’s Day. Children read letters with wishes to their parents, grandparents, godfather and godmother and receive a gift and/or money in return. At Easter, children have to search for chocolate eggs, dropped in the gardens by the clocks, when they come back from Rome.

The yearly fair (a travelling attraction park) is another highlight in the family festivities survey.

Since this subject is taboo, we are not allowed to comment this topic ;)

As a matter of fact, there are no taboos in our small democratic, free country. We can even discuss about Flanders becoming a new state or Belgium becoming a republic.

With the globalization of the world a lot of youngsters are dressed like million others everywhere in Europe. Generally speaking, we love cloths of good quality. We like the Italian design. There are a quite some worldwide famous Belgian designers like Walter Van Beirendonk, Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester.

We like casual clothing, also in working situations.

Do eat chips/French fries, drink beer, visit some ancient buildings, have a drink in a bar

Don’ts: don’t talk about politics, don’t be too overenthusiastic, don’t drive too fast, don’t drink when you are Bob (the driver of the car), don’t hunk while driving the car.

Shopping: on Saturday, families go shopping. Families buy their basic alimentary once a week in the supermarket, at the market. Small grocery stores are disappearing because of the concurrence of the supermarkets. Each day we buy fresh bread in a bakery.

Leisure: In our free time we plan excursions with the family, we do some sports, and we visit friends and family. We spent a lot of time watching television or using the computer.

We use our mobiles only when really needed, much less compared to other countries.

The centre of psychiatric care is world famous. Mentally ill people are integrated in normal family life and become a real member of the family, with tasks and freedom. The patients work in protected working places, have their own centres to meet, to have distraction but also they are part of the daily life in Geel.

We have a lot of churches you can visit and small nature reserves that are worth mentioning.

We have a mild sea climate, with cool summers and moderate winters. Rainfall is distributed throughout the year with a dryer period from April to September. Sometimes easterly winds can cause a more continental type of weather, warm and dry in the summer, but cold and clear in the winter. In winter there is regularly snow in the southern part of the country.