Why did eight-year-old Tom’s victory over Goliath mean so much in Ath?

The contest is brief, but it carries an improbable amount of local expectation. Tom, whose father Yohan is one of Monsieur Goliath’s porteurs, or bearers, had trained for the throw before taking the role of the shepherd David. Notélé reported that the boy was eight and that his twin brother, Timéo, is expected to inherit the part at a later edition. The City of Ath explains that David is generally played by a son or close relative of one of Goliath’s bearers, making the ritual an example of folklore transmitted through families rather than a conventional public performance with an interchangeable cast.

Goliath is formidable even when standing still. According to the commune’s official Ducasse website, the figure is 3.95 metres tall and weighs 129.5 kilograms, carried by one person at a time. The victory is not staged in advance: David must actually direct the ball into the small opening through which the bearer sees. After the spoken Bonimée, one throw separates triumph from disappointment. Tom’s success therefore had the suspense of a genuine contest, even though no giant literally falls.

The official Visit Ath programme says that a successful David is rewarded with the giants’ traditional dance. In 2026, that result gave spectators an extra Grand Gouyasse, the stately choreography performed by Monsieur and Madame Goliath. The commune describes the dance as an exacting sequence of lateral steps, turns and a kiss, normally presented at the former gateways known as the pont du Gâdre, on rue aux Gâdes, and the pont du Moulin, on rue du Moulin.

The Saturday combat and the Sunday cortège offer different views of the same tradition. On Saturday, Monsieur and Madame Goliath travel from the Hôtel de Ville to Saint-Julien church for the Vêpres Gouyasse and their symbolic marriage before returning towards the Grand-Place for David’s challenge. The dialogue and announcements are in French, and the word “ducasse” itself is the Walloon and northern French term for a local patronal fair. Visitors do not need fluent French to follow the throw, but reading the programme beforehand helps with the Bonimée and the order of ceremonies.

Sunday provides the larger spectacle. Visit Ath’s 2026 programme listed seven giants, eight allegorical floats, historical groups and fanfares, with the morning procession leaving from near Ath railway station and the afternoon procession travelling in the reverse direction. The station is less than 500 metres from the Grand-Place, according to the municipal tourism office, so arriving by train is usually the simplest approach when the centre is crowded. Ath is the French name used on timetables; unlike many Belgian municipalities, it does not have a commonly used separate Dutch municipal name, although Dutch-language tourism information is available through Visit Ath.

Drivers should not assume that ordinary parking arrangements will apply. The commune or gemeente-level authority here is the Ville d’Ath, and it publishes temporary road closures, controlled-access arrangements and spaces for holders of the Belgian parking card for people with disabilities. Those measures change from one edition to another. Check ath.be and visitath.be shortly before setting out rather than relying on an old social-media post. For rail times, use the SNCB/NMBS journey planner; for local mobility questions, the relevant municipal office is the Service Mobilité at the Administration communale, rue de Pintamont 54.

Families should expect dense crowds around the Grand-Place and along rue de Pintamont. The City of Ath has previously advised adults to place a contact number on a child’s wristband and has published locations for accessible toilets and reserved viewing arrangements. Those operational details must be reconfirmed for each edition, but the underlying advice remains sound: arrive early, travel light and agree on a meeting point away from the tightest part of the crowd.

The spectacle reaches back much further than modern event tourism. Wallonia’s official cultural-history portal records Goliath in Ath’s municipal accounts in 1481 and the David combat in 1487. What began within a religious procession gradually changed with the town itself. Goliath gained a wife in 1715, while the procession became a secular cortège in the nineteenth century. Its biblical characters, civic floats, music and family networks now operate together as an expression of Athois identity.

That continuity also contains a serious dispute. In 2022 UNESCO removed the Ducasse d’Ath from the multinational listing for “Processional giants and dragons in Belgium and France.” UNESCO condemned the racist and discriminatory depiction of the chained character known as the Sauvage and expressed its wish that the figure be removed. The delisting did not abolish the local festival, but it ended Ath’s place within that UNESCO element and made reform, representation and community ownership unavoidable parts of any honest account of the tradition.

For many Athois families, the Ducasse remains a living inheritance sustained by bearers, musicians, craftspeople and children such as Tom. Anti-racism constituencies and UNESCO, however, have argued that longevity cannot excuse a degrading racial stereotype. Those positions explain why the Ducasse is both warmly cherished and closely scrutinised: safeguarding folklore involves deciding not only what a community preserves, but what it is prepared to change.

Tom’s throw supplied the joyful answer to this year’s ritual question. The larger questions have no single ceremonial solution. Ath will now turn towards the next edition, when another young David is expected to face Goliath. Dates, access restrictions and accessible viewing arrangements should be checked once the Ville d’Ath and Visit Ath publish their next official programme.