I am always on the lookout for parties. What can I say, I am one cool party animal. Surfing the web, I came across a “catfest” (cat festival) in Ypres or Ypern, Belgium.
I was all excited – a special cat day with parade and all that for Us, Felines!
For those of you who haven’t got a clue, during the Middle Ages, Ypern was a prosperous town of 80.000 Providers.
Its main source of income was linen trade with England.
During this time, since 1476 to be precise, they would throw cats off the cloth halls to get rid of evil. Ha! That act itself is ultimate evil if you ask me!
Needless to say, they also held witch trials and eliminated a whole bunch of perfectly good Providers. Dumbos!
The people of Ypres were not alone in their “cattacide” – they would burn and kill felines all over Europe. I bet it was a Canine Plot to gain power.
You see, in early medieval times, we cats were symbols of bad spirits and we were accused of predicting disasters and mischief.
Stupid humans - that would interfere too much with our naptime!
Germanic tribes sacrificed us to keep evil ghosts away and Christians saw us as a sign of the devil or witchcraft. In short, we were not that popular and were not welcome anywhere.
Oh, how we pined at that time for Ancient Egypt, where they knew how to appreciate us!
To come back to Ypern, they had a rather original way of getting rid of any cats that were found. Our fellow felines were simply thrown from the Belfort Tower. Quel Horreur!
I am happy to inform you that nowadays they throw toy cats from the town hall tower after an elaborate parade called “Kattenstoet.”
The parade depicts the history of cats.
I like the concept of this parade. You see, it is highly educational (even for canines), since it features different themes, such as Cat Worship in History (with The Egyptian Cat), The Cat in Language and Legend, The Cat around the World, The Ypres Cat, and The Condemnation of Cats and Witches.
These tableaux are watched by many children and young people, which is a Good Thing, since they have to be trained as Providers.
Adult Humans realize how Gorgeous we felines are and dress up in cat costumes and try to improve their furless features with cat makeup.
In case you want to watch it, this Kattenstoet thingy is held every three years -the most recent one in May 2006.
Since having a cat parade is a concept we should implement worldwide, I suggest the following:
- Carnival in Rio will be changed to Catnival in Rio
- Macy’s Thanksgiving Day’s Parade will be changed to Garfield’s Thanksgiving Day's Parade
- At the State Opening of Parliament, the Black Rod will be replaced with a Black Cat (I suggest my friend Bundy)
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