Kermis and the Pandemics: 100 Years

 

Harvests, fall colors, festivals, football, and homecomings. COVID-19 squelched most of it.

COVID-19 was unable to cancel the beautiful fall colors this year, but it cancelled just about everything else. Kids start a new school year in fall. Fall is harvest dinners and festivals, football from the pee-wee leagues to the Packers, school homecomings, Egg Harbor’s Pumpkin Patch, Sister Bay’s Fall Fest and more. Since the late 1850s, fall has meant kermis in the Belgian communities of Kewaunee and Door Counties.

One hundred years later, even Bohemian communities such as Pilsen and Stangelville had a kermis.

August 25, 1922 news article

Kermis has been changing over the last 50 years, however during this C-19 year, what is left was cancelled like everything else. The  Belgian Heritage Center at Namur celebrated Kermis in mid-August 2020, but it was a drive-thru, which is also like just about everything else this year.

So, what is a kermis? Miriam-Webster Dictionary says the word kermis comes from the Middle Dutch word kercmisse, meaning "church mass." It is important to know that because there is no written Belgian language. Dutch is the language used predominantly in the northern part of Belgium and, in 2020, is used as the written language for a little over half its population. Those in the Flemish part of Belgium speak mostly French or German. Each Belgium state has its own official language, Dutch, French, or German. The three languages are used because of proximity to those countries.

Kermis was a part of Belgian history, After harvesting was completed in their native country, the Belgians attended mass to thank God for the bountiful harvest. That was followed by a three-day celebration of dancing and feasting.

The immigrating Belgians arrived on Wisconsin's peninsula in the early part of the 1850s and by 1859, they were homesick and lonesome. They worked hard amid poverty and privation and spirits were low when one Amia Champaign suggested a kermis. Others agreed: they had a good harvest and needed to thank God for the good things He had given them. Days were spent in food preparation. Trunks were searched to see if there was anything to be used for sprucing up clothing. Leather shoes were reoiled and made flexible, fresh evergreens were brought in to refill mattresses and earthen floors were cleaned. There were trips to Dyckesville and Green Bay for food items, and then baking began.

In the years to come, area papers began reporting on the kermis. A 1905 Record article pointed out that the custom came from Belgium where harvest festivals "are universal, similar to all the pastoral regions of the Old World." The paper said the festivities lasted for some days, or until the rounds were made and "the owner of each hall having an inning as it were." Only the most necessary work - caring for livestock - was accomplished during kermis.

To say the menu at the 1858 kermis was the same as in 1958 would be conjecture. In 1958, women baked for days, sometimes as many as 100 Belgian pies, dough spread over with prunes or apples and topped with dry curd cottage cheese. That was a change from 1900 when women used their own home made cottage cheese for topping the pies. In 1858, the exceptional Belgian bakers made bread light as a feather even though grains were coarse. The 1958 dinners included chicken booyah, tripe whch was a kind of pork sausage with cooked cabbage in it, and jut, a dish made with masked potatoes, cooked cabbage, butter and cream. As late as into the 1970s, Saxe's Arcade in Brussels - and Coun's after - was the site of wedding, anniversary and reunion dinners, and kermis dinners in the fall. Kermis dinners featured the wonderful ethnic dishes, and if those sponsoring other dinner events wanted the ethnic foods, Saxe's did that too.

On the 3rd Sunday in September 1858, Rosiere was the site of the first Belgian kermis in America. The date was chosen since on that day, the Belgians would have been at their kermis in Rosiere, Belgium. Father Edouard Daems came from Bay Settlement to Rosiere to offer mass in the language of the people. After mass, congregants were led by a band to a hall, such as it was. Folks danced in the dust in the road on their way to the hall where dancing waltzes. two-steps and others continued long into the night. (Rosiere in the early 1900s is the subject of this postcard.)

Merrymaking included plenty of home made beer, however if a woman wanted to quench her thirst, she was not allowed to enter a saloon to get it; her dancing partner  got the beer and took it outside for her to drink. Years later - and documented in Algoma up until World War l - there were ladies' parlors in hotels. If women wished an alcoholic drink, or smoke, it was in the ladies' parlor, the entrance to which was separate from other hotel entrances. Drinks would be brought to her.

Kermis was not all dancing and feasting. In years to come, there were games of skill, greased pig contests, races and more. A game that did not last long was the decapitation of a goose. A blindfolded man was given a scythe to use as he attempted to whack off the goose's head, much in the manner of blindfolded children trying to whack open a pinata to get the candy and trinkets inside.

In later years, one could purchase snacks such as bologna and crackers, booyah and more. And of the 100s of pies the ladies baked? Some were sold to saloons where there were always free slices offered at kermis. By the 1950s, Rosiere kermis was like a carnival with its small Ferris wheel for the kids. Adults and kids alike dressed in their Sunday best as they danced and enjoyed the games and activities kermis offered.

Each of the Belgian communities of northern Kewaunee and southern Door Counties had its own kermis on its own weekend. Although the communities followed in order, not all celebrations were the same. Kermis is no longer a three-day festival, but rather mostly a Sunday event with friends and family coming for dinner. In more recent years, dances were few, church attendance was lower, and Sunday-best might be a designer t-shirt and jeans with fashionable holes surrounded by rhinestones.

COVID-19 even changed things for the Belgian Heritage Center at Namur where kermis was celebrated with drive-thru pick up for booyah, Belgian pie, trippe, jut, and even hamburgers. Booyah purchases were limited to two gallons per customer, paid for in advance electronically on Paypal.

The Pandemic of 1918 – known as the Spanish influenza – also saw school closings and, according to the Kewaunee Enterprise, churches and saloons were closed in Brussels during October. As a result, the residents of Misiere could not celebrate their kermis even though there were no cases of the disease in the area. Brussels reported a few. Algoma’s public and parochial schools were closed during the 1918 kermis season as the Spanish Influenza was breaking out and authorities were determined to stop the spread of the disease any way possible. In September, however, the Record reported the number of Algoma people who enjoyed an exceptionally good time while attending the Rosiere kermis

1917 was different from 1918 when the influenza was beginning to spread. Kermis in 1917 started out normally and Forestville went on with a three-day event. September 1 was the start of the Door County Town of Union’s three-day kermis at Martin’s hall. People from miles around were expected to participate while preparations were made for a big time. Luxemburg Piano orchestra was on tap for dancing which would begin on Monday from 10:30 AM till 3:00 PM, and then continue through the night. Tuesday’s schedule was the same. The Record told readership that the Union kermis would be followed by similar events in other places. If the dancing hours seem strange, the break between 3:00 and the evening gave attendees time to care for their animals without missing festivities.

At the time of the 1918 Pandemic, kermises were found in predominantly Belgian communities, however even Ellisville had one in early September. Called a threshing kermis, the event held at John Kalcik’s said to be a success. Music was by Schleis, Reckelberg and Kalcik members of the Flat Z Band assisted by the Columbia Orchestra. One of the members said there should be a kermis once a month.

In mid-September 1918, the Enterprise said a kermis was held on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and although there was a great gathering of friends and relatives from the Kewaunee area, there were not as many people as normal. The paper did not mention the Pandemic, but it did say that there were fewer people in attendance because the country was at war with many of the boys on the battle fields and in training camps.

The Record told readers about Oscar Christenson and a kermis. Christenson ran his car into the ditch near Arnie Tronson’s place in the Town of Ahnapee. Oscar was coming from a kermis and had five passengers in his big Mitchell car. Luckily, none was hurt.

Diane Neinas was the “Brussels News” correspondent for the Door County Advocate in 1956. In early September, Ms. Neinas wrote that September 2 marked Brussels’ annual kermis. The harvest was in and freezers were filled with Belgian pies for dessert. She said the celebration would start Sunday morning when Rev. Milo Smits officiated at services at St. Francis Xavier. Then came the kermis dinner featuring any kind of meat, garden vegetables, cake, and Belgian pies. Visiting with friends and relatives, while eating more Belgian pie, filled the afternoon. Then came supper – if one could stuff themselves with more – and a dance.

In an August 1960 Advocate, the reporter did a kermis story reflecting what women did to ready themselves for it. The article mentioned a woman named Maxine who was working in the cherry plant to earn money for kermis clothes. Maxine went on to explain that it was an old custom for every family to have new clothing for kermis.

Lucy Andre, then a Rosiere area senior citizen, was interviewed in the same article. Mrs. Andre said the Belgian fall faestival was typified by prune and cheese Belgian pie, a polka band, family reunions and whiskey sours. She said the new clothing was not so closely followed in 1956 and that in the “kermis area,” real home made Belgian pies were served, not the kind that bakeries were making. She told the reporter that Belgians made some of the best bread made by any national group and that baking bread was like sewing or playing the piano: the more one did it, the better the product. Mrs. Andre called baking an art and said it is practice and a craft that separates the women from the girls.

Helen Tlachac, also from Rosiere, was interviewed about her mouth-watering bread horns which were slathered in butter and her own homeground poppyseed. When gardeners grew their own poppyseed, the poppyseed pies were especially delicious.

The Advocate’s reporter went on to mention the closely knit Rosiere community and how strange it was for an “outsider” to hear the women refer to customs of families living 5 or 7 miles north of them as being different. The farm families around Rosiere seemed to feel Brussels’ people were more citified.

Algoma tavern owner Al Vandertie was known for his renditions of Belgian folk songs, and during the Wisconsin Centennial in 1948, Al was asked to record Walloon and Flemish folk songs for the University of Wisconsin and the National Library of Congress. Recording such songs “I Went to Market,” “An Invitation to the Kermis,” and more. Al said the songs give Belgians hope for family reunions, good weather and one that says coffee makes ladies chatter. Al would not explain the last one. Al sang on the radio and recorded his own albums in addition to entertaining the folks at his bar. Sung in the original lyrical language, Al’s songs were beautiful whether sung at kermises or not. When English translations were put to the beautiful melodies, they brought laughter, which is probably why Al would not fully explain the coffee song to the reporter!

Kermis has changed in its 162 years in Kewaunee and Door Counties, but who could have ever guessed virtual activities, drive-thrus and Paypal would be a part of it?

Sources: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record, Algoma Record Herald, Door County Advocate, Kewaunee Enterprise; Miriam-Webster Dictionary, Wikipedia.

Graphics: Blogger's postcards, Belgian Heritage Kermis poster found online, newspaper article.