he was i believe he was in kazakstani gear on this day. i was thrilled he was dressed up! oh and btw, that bag contains allllll my chocolate tour loot!so there are tons of stories and tales about the origin of this little pee'r and because i love this little statue so much, here are some of the fables:
and here's the best part: countries around the world send this statue costumes!!!! many costumes represent the national dress of nations whose citizens come to Brussels as tourists; others are the uniforms of assorted trades, professions, associations, and branches of the civil and military services.one story is that a small boy went missing from his mother when shopping in the center of the city. The woman, panic-stricken by the loss of her child, called upon everyone she came across, including the mayor of the city. A city-wide search began and when at last the child was found, he was peeing on the corner of a small street. The story was passed down over time and the statue erected as tribute to the well known fable.
Another legend tells of the young boy who was awoken by a fire and was able to put out the fire with his urine, in the end this helped stop the king's castle from burning down.
On occasion, the statue is hooked up to a keg of beer. Cups will be filled up with the beer flowing from the statue and given out to people passing by. wait, i read this on wikipedia which graciously helped me with parts of this text... and what!? beer?! that was definitely not hooked up when i was there!!! in any case, they keep his costumes in the city museum.
the city museum. seriously worth the euros to enter. just to see the costumes that countries have sent over the years. the collection is amazing. i tried in vain to find some of the best. i guess the museum protects them pretty well, b/c i couldn't find any of the ones housed there... but there are super cool ones from the US like natively dressed alaskans and hawaiians and of course there is an elvis outfit... there was a pilot, japanese warriors and all sorts of beyond elaborate outfits.according to the city, an official dresses the statue in different outfits that have been submitted to the mayor of the city and approved. he changes clothes 36 times a year and a schedule can even be found online! and the museum says that the wardrobe of Manneken-Pis did not really grow in the 19th century when dressing it became popular since it wasn't used as a main water source anymore. Between 1918 and 1940, it received around 30 suits. In the 80s we counted more than 400 and today we have more than 800!
they love this kid... here's one made of chocolate!
and here's one in every color!
this is how i saw him dressed...and this is how i found him on the internet:
2 comments:
best statue story ever!!!
My dad has a corkscrew of that little guy, but instead of him peeing, it is the screw part. Quite a conversation piece.
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