St. Roch military marches in wallonia: Historical memory, commemoration and identity

From well-known celebrations of Carnival and la ducasse, to obscure saint commemorations, ritualized festivals and processionals in Francophone Belgium survive in popular memory and in uence contempo-rary conceptions of local identity. Several St. Roch military marches in the l Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse region in Wall onia received UNESCO recognition as examples of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012. The annual, multi-day processionals involve hundreds of marchers from local communities dressed in Napo-leonic-era military uniforms, carrying authentic mus-kets and escorting a statue of St. Roch. Many of these marchers trace family involvement back t hrough mul-tiple generations.