Luxembourg Community to the Fore as LACS Promotes Heritage in US

The town of Belgium, Wisconsin, USA, is where the largest community of Luxembourgers and their descendants are based, and where they celebrated the traditional Luxembourg Fest from Thursday 8 to Saturday 11 August 2024.

The event is now in its 38th year and is organised by the Luxembourg American Cultural Society (LACS), led by Executive Director Patricia Lutz, which is housed together with the Roots & Leaves Museum, and also with the support of Luxembourg's Consul-General, Mike Ansay. The President of the Roots and Leaves Asbl in Luxembourg, Carlo Krieger, was also in attendance. 

The museum is housed in a stone building that dates from 1872 as part of the Mamer-Hansen farm in Port Washington and which was dismantled, transported and rebuilt. Caitlin Armstrong, LACS Curator of Collections and Archives, explained that the museum about Luxembourg is where descendants and others can learn about their heritage, in collaboration with genealogy services provided by LACS.

While there is also a town called Luxembourg a little further north in the Green Bay Municipal Area in Wisconsin, it was Belgium, Wisconsin, where many Luxembourgers seemed to settle from around 1845, with at least 250 Luxembourgish families settling in the area around Port Washington by the late 1900s. In this town itself, the lighthouse cupola was rebuilt by craftsmen in Luxembourg in 2000, and shipped across the Atlantic replacing the original lantern dating from 1849.

Another nearby town called Dacada is where the St Nicolas Church was established by Luxembourgers in 1848. The church houses a statute of the Madonna which was brought over from Luxembourg originally. Many families of Luxembourgish descent are buried in the cemetery opposite.

Many local establishments serve Bofferding beer and other Luxembourgish products such as Ramborn cider and Twisted Cat beer, as well as VinsMoselle wines.

Luxembourg Fest 2024

The four-day event commenced on a Thursday in mid-August with a 90-minute LACS' members' social. This laid-back event attracted around 80 people who enjoyed a cooking demonstration by Nicky Krieger-Loos and Marc Weydert from the Grand Duchy who confirmed they are writing a book of Luxembourg recipes (in English).

On the Friday, the nearby town of Grafton was the venue for the Cultural Forum, a two-hour presentation on Luxembourg Culinary Traditions. Guy Thewes, Director of Lëtzebuerg City Museum and Villa Vauban, addressed a crowd of around 80 people who learnt about "The Invention of Luxembourg Culinary Traditions" and "The Eating Habits of Luxembourgers in the Past". He talked about Luxembourgers using communal ovens for baking bread in the 15th century and the first cookery book appearing in 1935; during the inter-war period, there was the start of recognition of Luxembourgish cuisine coinciding with a feeling of national pride and patriotism. The first records of Luxembourg culinary traditions can be traced back to the 1950s, with ham and eggs prepared in different ways. The earliest menu can be traced back to 1897, with Crayfish a national delicacy - the aquatic animals eventually died out throughout the region.

Saturday was the big day, kicking off with a substantial hour-long parade with floats, many tractors and a marching band, as well as with sheep like are still seen each year at the opening of the Schueberfouer which coincidentally takes place just a week or so later in the Grand Duchy. The Diamond Dancers performed Luxembourgish folk dancing, encouraging audience participation for dances including the Sonndesdanz (which translates to Sunday Dance) and the Chiberli. Luxembourgish Street Food was available including Kniddelen, Mettwurst and Mustreipen, as well as Belgium waffles, and also food trucks offering American favourites such as Root beer floats, Burgers and Hot Dogs, plus Mexican tacos and pretzels.

This was very much a community event, with many organisations involved. The "Honored Family", the Jacobys, had a stand and attendees could purchase Luxembourgish items from the LACS stand.Music was performed by The Other Side with the many children loving Ms Kim's Amazing Animals, climbing on the straw bales, as well as the artists' corner where visitors crafted Paper Roses from recycled Luxembourgish books.

But the pièce-de-la-résistance was surely the Treipen Eating Contest, with both Junior and Senior categories. This year's winners were father and daughter Cory and Emma Dimmer - competitors had 30 seconds in which to eat as much of the Luxembourgish sausage as possible.

The sun had shone all day long which helped to swell the attendance to an estimated 4,000+ people across all generations, all eager to experience a bit of Luxembourg's heritage.

The day concluded with the "Luxembourg Under the Stars" fundraiser for around 200 people in a marquee on the Duke Henri Village Square. Irish-born Luxembourgish entrepreneur Tom Hickey came over from the Grand Duchy specially for this event with a special menu prepared with Rebecca Berkshire of the Lowlands Group.

The Luxembourg Fest concluded on Sunday morning with an open-air Mass attended by around 250 people covering all age groups and with singing by the Luxembourg Fest Choir. The readings were in both English and Luxembourgish and the service was led by Abbot Joel Rippinger from Aurora, Illinois, who urged all mass-goers to pass on their Luxembourgish heritage to the next generation.

This year's Duke and Duchess, Joe & Karen Jasper (her predecessors came from Mamer and Syren; she visited Luxembourg in 2013 with LACS and gained dual citizenship in 2015), were presented with sashes from last year's holders of the titles, the Dimmers, with a Magic and Comedy Show by Glen Gerard closing out the four-day event.

Luxembourg's heritage in America made be spread over large distances, but its heart beats from Belgium, Wisconsin, where it is very much alive and kicking, thanks to the tight-knit community coordinated by those involved directly and indirectly in LACS and who use modern communications tools to keep its wide network up to date with what is happening and who bring thousands of people together for its annual Luxembourg Fest. Similarly, both the genealogy services and Luxembourgish language classes on offer are taken up by those whose forbearers left the Grand Duchy around 180 years ago to give their families a better life; these services combine to keep Luxembourg's heritage alive in America.