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| Feline fest |
In Belgium, the city of Ieper (that’s a capital I as in “Irving”) hosts a cat festival every three years, partly in the spirit of fun and partly to atone for the cruel treatment of cats in the Middle Ages, when Ieper and other cities applauded as droves of cats were slaughtered.
The Ieper parade features people in cat costumes, an enormous “queen cat” float, the Norse goddess Freyja in her cat-drawn chariot “witch cats” frolicking in mobile cemeteries and other feline floats, balloons and vehicles. Even in the years when there isn’t a cat festival, the city bears the nickname kattenstad, “city of cats.”
