What can Romain and Antonia’s diamond anniversary teach newcomers about Belgian civic life?
Romain Simoens, 82, and Antonia Ondank, 81, marked 60 years of marriage in Wingene after marrying on 29 July 1966, and the municipal executive honoured them for their diamond anniversary.
In 30 seconds
- Romain Simoens and Antonia Ondank married on 29 July 1966.
- They reached 60 years of marriage on 29 July 2026.
- The couple have two daughters and two grandchildren, according to Het Nieuwsblad.
- Wingene’s municipal executive honoured them for their diamond anniversary.
Romain Simoens, 82, and Antonia Ondank, 81, have marked 60 years of marriage in Wingene, West Flanders, after marrying on 29 July 1966, and the municipality’s college of mayor and aldermen recently honoured the couple for their diamond anniversary. For other long-married residents, including people who originally married abroad, the practical lesson is straightforward: contact the Burgerzaken service of your gemeente—or the service État civil of your commune—well before the anniversary, because Belgian municipalities set their own procedures for invitations, gifts and official visits.
Het Nieuwsblad reports that Romain and Antonia met through a family connection. Romain’s brother was in a relationship with Antonia’s neighbour, and the encounter eventually brought the future couple together. They went on to have two daughters and two grandchildren. Now in their eighties, they particularly value time at home and modest outings with relatives and friends, according to the newspaper’s account.
The precise date of the municipal reception was not stated in the available report, but the underlying anniversary can be independently checked. An official Wingene municipal magazine published in 2016 listed Romain Simoens and Antonia Ondank among that summer’s golden wedding couples and recorded their marriage date as 29 July 1966. Ten years later, that same date makes their marriage a diamond one: the customary Belgian description for 60 years together.
More than a private anniversary
Municipal recognition gives the occasion a distinctly Belgian civic dimension. The college van burgemeester en schepenen—the executive body known in French-speaking municipalities as the collège communal—regularly represents the local authority at community milestones. Such ceremonies place a family event inside the public history of a town: marriages, births and deaths are recorded by the civil registrar, while exceptional anniversaries may be acknowledged through a reception, delegation, certificate, flowers or another local gift.
That recognition is customary rather than uniform. Each municipality determines which anniversaries it celebrates and how residents are contacted. Some administrations identify eligible couples from population and civil-status records; others send a questionnaire or ask residents and relatives to make contact. A published 2025 local-government decision elsewhere in Flanders, for example, records gifts for golden, diamond and later anniversaries after couples returned a questionnaire, with a municipal delegation appointed when a couple requested a celebration. It illustrates the kind of process residents may encounter, not a nationwide entitlement or necessarily Wingene’s current procedure.
Privacy preferences matter too. Couples should be able to ask whether names, photographs or family details will be published in a municipal magazine, on a website or in the local press. Anyone arranging a surprise on behalf of parents or grandparents should therefore speak first with the municipality and the couple rather than assume that an official visit or publicity happens automatically.
How to check your own record
For a practical starting point, search the website of your commune or gemeente for “huwelijksjubileum” in Dutch or “jubilé de mariage” in French. If no page appears, contact Burgerzaken, Bevolking or the dienst Burgerlijke Stand in Flanders; in Wallonia or a French-language municipality, ask Population or État civil. Brussels residents should check the rules of their particular commune, not merely the Brussels-Capital Region’s portal, because civil-status services are organised municipally.
Have the spouses’ full names, current address, marriage date and place of marriage ready. If the marriage was celebrated abroad or the couple moved between countries, ask whether the foreign marriage has been entered in Belgium’s civil-status records. Do not send original documents without instructions: the municipality can explain whether it needs an authenticated copy, legalisation or apostille, and a sworn translation into Dutch, French or German. Language requirements depend on the competent authority; an English marriage certificate may not by itself satisfy the administrative file.
A Belgian marriage certificate is the formal proof of the marriage. The Flemish government’s official portal says an eligible person can request an extract or copy from the municipal administration. With an electronic identity card, records may also be available through the municipality’s e-loket or Mijn Burgerprofiel. An extract generally shows the current information, while a full copy reproduces the act and later annotations. Equivalent access routes in French-speaking Belgium should be checked through the relevant commune’s État civil service.
For Romain and Antonia, none of that administration is the heart of the story. Their milestone rests on six decades of shared family life, while the municipal tribute gives neighbours a way to recognise it. Yet the official framework helps explain why such apparently small reports recur across Belgian local news. Communes and gemeenten remain unusually visible at life’s turning points, from the initial civil wedding to landmark anniversaries many decades later.
The broader demographic picture makes 60 years together notable without turning one couple into a statistic. , Belgium’s federal statistics office, registered 48,589 marriages in 2024, including 27,147 associated with the Flemish Region under its published methodology. The office also reported that the median age at first marriage had risen to 31.65 in 2024. Separate Statbel figures for 2023 put the average duration of marriages ending in divorce at 14.7 years and those ending through bereavement at 49.1 years. Those measures describe different groups and cannot predict any individual marriage, but they show why a living couple reaching six decades attracts community attention.
Where this is happening
View on map Statbel →Romain and Antonia’s next chapter is private, and no further public ceremony has been announced. For other families nearing a 50th, 60th or 65th anniversary, the useful next step is to check the municipal rules several months ahead, confirm that the civil-status record is complete and state clearly whether the couple wants a visit, a quiet acknowledgement or no publicity at all.
What to do
If you or relatives are approaching 60 years of marriage, contact the population or civil-status service of the relevant commune or gemeente well before the anniversary. Ask whether recognition is automatic or requires registration, which marriage certificate or identification documents are needed, whether a reception or home visit is offered, and how photographs or names may be published. Procedures and privacy choices vary locally, so do not rely on Wingene’s example as a Belgium-wide rule. Couples married on 29 July 1966 reached the 60-year milestone on 29 July 2026; calculate eligibility from the official marriage date.
Impact
Regional — The anniversary belongs primarily to Wingene and its local community. Its wider relevance lies in the similar—but locally variable—tradition of municipal recognition across Flanders and other Belgian regions.
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This story was assembled from verified evidence, with its sources and reasoning recorded as it was written.