The Gilles of Villers-la-Ville
« Les Bossus du Ramipont » is the name of the Gilles of Villers-la-Ville. This folkloric group was created in Villers-la-Ville in 1980. It currently counts seventy members of all ages. Since for outsiders the name « Gille » is mostly associated with the city of Binche, the initiators of this group decided to call their members “Bossus”. In French, the word « Bossus » means hunchbacks, a description of the character, the Gille, who wears stuffed clothes and looks like a hunchback.

Every year, the “Bossus” attend the famous Carnival of Villers-la-Ville. They are the ones who lead the parade through the narrow streets of the village. This parade takes place on the Sunday before Shrove Tuesday.

Brotherhoods and guilds are living witnesses of a moment in our history. The religious orders have preserved memories of folklore, local gastronomy, our history and our traditions!

Have you seen the giant wicker statues that have been appearing along the roadside in our region over the last few years ? In the area around Villers, there are 8 of them which represent fabulous heroes and workers. They are very light but solid, because it must be possible to carry them while dancing in the street.

In Villers-la-Ville, 2 giant scarecrows regularly travel the roads of the town: Marie Doudouye who symbolises the introduction of the cultivation of potatoes in the 19th century and Pierre Di Tchesseau, whose name is a reference to the former distillery owned by the Dumont de Chassart family which made the well-known eau de vie.

In Court-Saint-Etienne, Djosef and Dolfine were created in 1980 for the 150th anniversary of Belgium. Djosef is a worker from the former Henricot factories. Dolfine is his wife.

In Walhain, there are 4 : D'Joseph d’Amérique, from the name of an immigrant from Wisconsin in 1855; Quiquine del Vi Tchestia, from the name of the Countess of Walhain at the beginning of the 16th century who left her mark on the Old castel; Marcel, known as 'Biloque', the son of the previous two and Juliette de Maugré-To, Biloque's sister.