What is “Historia Mundi”?

Historia Mundi is the overall organization that aims to bundle all the societies in Belgium who practise re-enacting and living history.

This finalizes in a yearly event where all these associations are assembled with the aim of presenting our
hobby to the general public.

In this event a journey through the world history is presented.

What is re-enacting and living history?

Living history is reliving history. Specific in this is that a particular place and period are depicted in their totality.
Based on research we try to live exactly as men did in those times.
This means that clothing as well as all materials are historically correct. We picture the life of persons of this period without really imitating a particular person. We render persons and crafts of the relevant periods. These periods generally cover 10 to 50 years, depending on the industrial evolution of the relevant period.

Re-enacting is similar. The difference is that usually we re-live battles or events of the history, following a pre-planned scenario or following a free story.
The major difference with the living history is that we do not depict common life, but that we try to imitate events of history as true as possible.

It often happens that in the first group we mostly find hobbyists who depict the common citizen, the population or the artisan. On the other hand the second group is concentrated on militarism, historical events or battles.

The event.

This event is unique in its kind.
It only happens once a year in Belgium that all historical associations are assembled under the cover of
a multi-period camp.

During this camp we make a journey through World History.
This happens in an encampment built in the style and the tradition of the presented period.

Some of the participating periods are: Celts, Romans, Vikings, Early Middle-Ages, Late Middle-Ages, Renaissance, Scottish Highlanders, 18e Century ‘Bourgeoisie’, Woodland Indians, French and Indian War, Colonisation of the Americas, Napoleon, Trappers and Plain Indians, Civil War, Cowboys, 1st and 2nd World War, Vietnam War, etc.

Further More there are all sorts of demonstrations in this historical framework. Not only camp-life of the related period is presented, but also the matching trades, such as White and Indian handcraft, pottery, wood-work, forgery, to mention only some, are presented to the general public.

Finally we demonstrate historical battles, tournaments, drill exercises and duels.

Extent of the event.

During our last-years event we counted over 900 re-enactors or participants in historical costumes.
Also we had about 400 tents to give a realistic image of the different period of World History.

100.000 flyers and 1200 posters were distributed all around Belgium.

The press was largely informed, so the event was well advertised.

We counted between 18000 and 20000 visitors, so we can speak of a success.

Up now to the 2007 edition.