Festival In Binche, Belgium -

BELGIUM - CIRCA 1900: Festival In Binche, Belgium - At dawn on Mardi Gras, the drummers go to get the Gilles at their homes-The Gilles are wearing sumptuous costumes embroidered with lions-They wear wooden shoes, sabots, and as they walk they continually stamp their feet on the cobblestones in pounding rhythm with the drumming bands-They have a belt of bells around their waists, and they wave the ramon in front of them a bundle of branches-They wear a strange wax mask with green glasses which they take off at the end of the dance at the main place of the City Hall-In the afternoon, they all put on their famous ostrich-feathered hats and participate in a big procession with other costumed groups: the Blue Farmers, the Sailors, the Harlequins, the Pierrots, the Princes of the Orient-As they march, they throw hundreds of oranges around which smash against the facades of the houses-This festival day is the culmination of six weeks of rehearsals, balls, costume making etc. (Photo by Francois LE DIASCORN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)