The giants of Nivelles

Already on record in 1367, Argayon of Nivelles, the famous processional giant of Nivelles, had to be patient, as only in 1645 did he officially marry, before welcoming some time later little Lolô, a big baby pampered by his parents as well as the population.
Proud of its giants, Nivelles can boast of having the oldest human processional giants of the former Netherlands.

As of 1367, the town records note a giant by the name of Ghayant, a name that over time evolved into Goliath, Gholiath, Golyas, and then Golias, until 1574, a sombre time when political and religious disturbances relegated a good number of customs and festivities to oblivion. It was not until 10 years later that Golias resurfaced under the name of Agayon, then Argayon; two appellations that competed until the end of the Ancien Régime.

Although our archives before the 17th century do not give us many details on the life of our giant, we know that in the 16th century Argayon participated in the procession of Saint Michael, flanked by a dragon and the horse Bayard.
Long a bachelor, our Argayon officially wed Argayonne, whom he only got to know in 1645. From this touching love “él Lolô” was born, a big baby wearing his legendary dummy around his neck (in popular language, Lolô denotes a vacuous and puerile person, whatever his age).

Thus in the 17th century the whole family accompanied the re-entry of the Tour Saint Gertrude procession, followed for the occasion by various "animals" that replaced the horse Bayard, no trace of whom is found in the later accounts of 1598-1599. This "menagerie" was also made up of the Dragon (1596), the horse Godet (1637), the eagle (1637), the Lion (1640), the Unicorn (168) and the Camel (1713).

At the end of the 18th century, the hard-line reformist policy of Joseph II struck down not only a good number of institutions but also the giants and their acolytes, who were all banned from the procession and sold at auction (1786). Very fortunately, the residents of Nivelles regained their giants and the horse Godet in the national festivities of 1806. On the other hand, they had to wait another 140 years before the menagerie reappeared in their festivities, reduced to only the Lion, Dragon and Camel.

After a fall into the Thines, the river running through Nivelles, and being again set aside for several years (1888), the newly dressed family once more participated in the popular jubilation during the 25th anniversary of the reign of King Leopold II, a memorable day in the course of which Argayonne lost her head in the middle of the road.

The May 1940 bombardments also got the better of the giants of Nivelles and their menagerie. But thanks to their restoration after sketches of Paul Collet dating from 1929 and photos by Octave Sanspoux (1930) and thanks to the progressive reconstruction of the Menagerie initiated by the Tourism Office of Nivelles, our giants were able to resume their activities. On 21 May 1950 the family had its first outing in Nivelles, accompanied by the horse Godet. Later, our giants took part in several outings, notably in the United States (Alabama) in 1978, where Argayonne, among others, represented the giants of Belgium during a Belgian week. In 1986, the reconstruction of every animal was completed and each one received a patron or patroness.