The first St V parade by students…
November 1888 CE
The day's long form (French: Saint-Verhaegen, Dutch: Sint-Verhaegen) differs in the two official languages, but both are a reference to Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen, the founder of the university, who notably is not a saint and was never canonized; the name had been chosen to mock the Saint-Nicolas festivities of the rival Catholic University instead.
On this morning, two hundred of the university's fourteen hundred students, with many freemasons, (as Verhaegen was also the founder of the Grand Orient of Belgium) assemble and leave a wreath of oak leaves on Verhaegen's tomb.
In following years, the students, with much fanfare and waving the flags of their respective student organizations, will form a long procession to pay homage to Verhaegen at his tomb and a monument in his honor.
These celebrations continue to this day, although the students are today generally more concerned with drinking in the streets, and the honoring of Verhaegen is done largely by faculty and leaders of the student organizations and is more formal and official.
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