Carnival of Sergines

The Carnaval of Sergines is organized not the Association of the youth of Sergines and is of this fact completely independent of the municipality of Sergines.

The village of Sergines, chief town of canton of Sénonais North, with the reputation to have of the villagers who like the festival. The reputation also comes from its past:

the discovery of Gallic vestiges;
the legend of Saint-Benevolent;
the family of Sargines;
the native Blaise Rigault;
etc

In a nonremote past took place the fairs, the markets and the agricultural shows with construction of triumphal arch in the streets.

Now Sergines rhyme with Carnival.

This magic word for the children evokes the disguises, the battles of confettis, etc

Without wanting to compete with the carnivals of Rio, Nice, Binche, Dunkirk, Viarregio or Venice, Sergines represents the carnival of Burgundy.

But to arrive at this celebrity, the young people of Sergines knew to make evolve/move with the passing of years the small festival of the children and large of the Ash Wednesday.

For this reason the Association of the current youth of Sergines is leaning on its past and sought the origin of its carnival.

The history of the carnival of Sergines thus goes back certainly to the Middle Ages and perhaps front, because the Romans made carnival and the Roman way passes to Sergines.

The first writings evoking the carnival of Sergines are of 1838. It is about a decree of the mayor authorizing the coffees and the cabarets to remain open up to 10 p.m. during the three days that the carnival lasts. The first description of the cavalcade appears in the newspaper of Jean-Auguste LABBE in 1890. At that time, Carnaval was celebrated the day of fatty Tuesday, that lasted until in 1960. The old ones remember that before the war of 14-18, there were only horses and not tanks.

After the war, the carnival is articulated around the tanks:

of the children;
of the musicians;
of the single people.

The single people are the organizers of the festival, in general they make fun of the politicians.

Certain years in the cavalcade a speaker ridden on horse is which attracts the curiosity of crowd. This speaker reads the sentence. The sentence is an old habit, it is the ratio of five crusty facts concerning of the citizens and the citizens of the canton. This habit which will cause many problems, will stop in 1939. The tanks of the time were produced with carts decorated with branches of fir tree or genévriers. These tanks are those of the music and the children.

The tank of the single people, or disguised politicians, is large four wheels lent by a merchant or a large farm.

But the beauty of the cavalcade is especially in the costumes which carry out Serginots, the children are in Pierrot, the young girls out of evening gowns, the boys as marquis, dukes and middle-class man. Musical animation was carried out by a specific song to each tank. The songs were copied and sold to the spectators.

At that time the horses were numerous and one did not think yet of the autotractés tanks. But the idea germinates in the spirit of the devoted organizers.

The boat Serginot is the prémice of the future autotractés tanks, that in 1935.

After the second world war, the tradition is modernized. As always after the wars, many changes do without. But to Sergines, that occurs in softness, and softness is sign of good things. The years which make date for carnival:

1959: the first Majesty
1960: carnival one Sunday
1962: the first Queen
1965: the topic
1968: the declaration of association law 1901
1970: use of iron stems for the framework of the tanks, the beam for the pinks,

the cars and trucks for support of the subjects, the hiring of the animals becomes with the day order, but among the animals usually used in time by the farmers, of new arrive (camels, buffaloes, spangled, zebras, foxes, wild boars, geese etc…)

1972: the paying entry
1973 and 1974: the construction of the hangars
1993: the pneumatic pink machine
1996: construction of the 3rd hangar

The Association of the youth of Sergines elects its office each year in December. This office made up of a president, a vice-president, a treasurer, a vice-treasurer of a secretary and a vice-secretary, has in load the organization of the carnival. The choice of a topic is approved and dates it from the carnival is stopped, in general the first weekend of March. The base of the cavalcade is the presentation of the tanks. The clothes industry of these tanks is done in the hangars of the Marl-pit, of a surface of approximately 1000 m ².

Tanks: nine plates carried out starting from old cars and trucks. Thus two C 4, two Renault Meadow, two SEMI Citroen (driving reversed), as well as a truck U 23 Citroen and a Renault truck take again life. These vehicles are equipped with two gear boxes, which enables them to reduce to the maximum their speed. All these petrol engines must be regulated like a clock to traverse the three kilometers of circuit of the cavalcade.

The basic material for the tanks can break up into:

2 tons of scrap cut, formed and welded for the framework.
1.500 square meters of hessian.
250 kilograms of adhesive; as much painting.
10.000 m ² of paper “curves” are necessary to the manufacture of the 300.000 pinks decorating the tanks and the streets.
of the thousands of feathers, stuck to for certain representations.

These tanks require the work of 50 young people of Sergines and the communes of the canton, of at the beginning of January at the date of the cavalcade and the club of the third age. The organization requires the occupation of approximately 100 voluntary people. The cavalcade proceeds on a course of approximately 3 km in the streets of Sergines (1 turn the morning then 3 the afternoon).

To the tanks attachments of horses are added, asses and animals of other countries: dromedaries, zebras, buffaloes.

This unit is accompanied by brass bands by the area and sometimes by the German brass band by the city by twinning.

The evening, a procession is formed with the music to accompany “King Carnaval” on the spot by its execution: the torch, i.e. end of “Its Majesty” by fire, with dance and shooting of fireworks.

See too

site of the carnival of Sergines

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