June 28 – Happy Birthday, Peter Paul Rubens!

Posted June 27, 2013

There are people who make a splash in a big way, in this world, and Rubens made his splash with colorful paint!

This Flemish painter was born on this date way back in 1577. (Flanders is now a part of Belgium, but Rubens was actually born in Germany but moved to Antwerp, Flanders, when he was 11 or 12 years old.)

Rubens had a happy family life.
Here is a self-portrait in which
he included his wife and son.

(Yes, the kid in the "dress" is a boy.
I read that the blue sash indicated
that this was clothing appropriate
for little boys.)

Rubens used a lot of color and captured a lot of movement in his paintings, and his portraits were popular with nobility. He was able to run a large studio, and he was knighted by the kings of Spain and England!

By the way, the reason that Germany lost Rubens to Flanders was because his parents faced religious persecution and fled their homes. Religious persecution is just never a good idea!

• Here is a page about Rubens that includes a brief bio, pictures, games and puzzles.

• Here is a coloring page featuring a Rubens piece. 

• Happy Scribbles Kids Art Site talks about Rubens's lion drawing. 

• Rubens had a “secret garden” at his house/studio, which is now a museum. Check it out. 

Here is Peter Paul Rubens's signature, which
identified his paintings as his own. Come up
with a signature of your own—maybe your whole
name, or just your first or last name, or just your
initials.

Also on this date:

Anniversary of the proof that tomatoes are not poisonous 

Scientist Alexis Carrel's birthday

Constitution Day in Ukraine

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest pages on June holidays, historical anniversaries in June, and June birthdays.

And here are my Pinterest pages on July holidays, historical anniversaries in July, and July birthdays.

July 11, 2011 - Guldensporenslag

—Flemish National Day

This day commemorates a bloody battle fought in 1302 between a large, well-armed French army with a core of 2,500 noble cavalry, on the one hand, and on the other hand a large, well-armed group of Flemish peasants and townsfolk. (Actually, once the battle was going, the Flemish army was supplemented by some Flemish nobles—but the original battle was an uprising of “ordinary folk” against noblemen.) One reason this particular battle is celebrated is because the “ordinary folk” won! Apparently, a large cavalry force had been considered to be invincible, and military thought at the time dictated that each cavalryman (knight on a horse) was equal to ten infantryman (foot soldiers). This battle made everyone re-think military strategy.

This is called the Battle of the Golden Spurs because Flemish soldiers gathered hundreds (or even thousands) of golden spurs from the French knights who were killed. The golden spurs were hung in a church as a kind of victory trophy.

Although today's world has no independent nation called Flanders, the Flemish live on in the Dutch-speaking portion of Belgium. This holiday is the is the official Flemish Celebration Day.

For more on the battle and the day, check out the colorful illustrations and information found here. 

One of my favorite spots in Flanders is Brugge, a picturesque city with walls and canals. I loved wandering the streets, taking a million photos, and eating Belgian fries hot off the street carts (they had a bunch of special sauces you can dip your fries into, which made it especially fun and delicious!). To see other people's millions of photos, check out the slide show on Virtual Tourist. (Just click the photo to go to the next one.) Or scroll to the bottom of the Wikipedia page to see some gorgeous panorama shots of the city. 

September 27, 2010

French Community Holiday – Belgium

This holiday is celebrated only by the French Community of Belgium. This is mostly made up of people living in the southern half of Belgium (an area known as Walloon Region) plus many living in bilingual Brussels. The people of this community are Belgian, not French, but they speak French as their primary language.

The date for the French Community Holiday commemorates an important battle in the Belgian Revolution—a battle of French-speaking Belgians against the Dutch army. Interestingly, the Flemish Community of Belgium has a parallel holiday (July 11) that commemorates a battle victory of Dutch-speaking Belgians against the French army!

(By the way, there is a third region of Belgium, the German-speaking Community. It is tiny. These three “communities” are official institutions with their own governments.)

On this day, the French Community schools are closed, and there are many free concerts plus plays and sporting events.

Did you know...?

• Belgium is host of the European Union—in other words, most of the EU's institutions are located there. The headquarters of NATO are also located in Belgium.

• Because both Dutch and French are quite closely related to English, and many Belgians from both language regions learn to speak English in schools, young Flemings and Walloons often chat with each other in English! That means that English is Belgium's lingua franca (a French term, adopted by the English language, that means “common language”)....The only time I've been to Belgium, I stayed with a French-speaking family in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium, near Antwerp. And, by the way, I ran into a lot of people who didn't seem to speak much English.

• Belgium is 321 times smaller than the U.S., but it has the same population as Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, the District of Columbia, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska COMBINED!

• There are many castles in Belgium. Check out Bruno's website to see some.

Belgian Food Fun Facts

Belgium is known for chocolate. It produces about 220,000 tonnes (in the U.S., this would be 242,500 tons) of chocolate per year. According to my sources, the world's biggest chocolate seller is the airport in Brussels, Belgium! 

Belgians claim to have invented the fried-potato treat that are called French fries by Americans and chips by Brits. I love the fresh, hot fries/chips sold out of street carts in Belgium—partly because of all the yummy sauces we could dip them into! (I think there were 30 or 40 sauces offered by a typical friterie.

With such delicious fresh fries so easily available, it's no wonder that Belgians eat (on average) 165 pounds per year! 

Belgium is also known for its waffles and rice tarts and other bakery treats. 

Belgium has one of the lowest proportions of McDonald's restaurants per person in the developed world (seven times less than the U.S.).