The Cwarmê of Malmedy
In Malmedy, the carnival bears a different name than elsewhere: the Cwarmê. On Shrove Sunday, thousands of long-nosed figures march through the streets, dressed in red costumes with white collars. These are the Haguètes.
The legend says they are not wholly human, but transformations of people into something between human and ghost. And with their wooden pincers they capture people.
1 The Transformation
In the early Middle Ages, the people of Malmedy were normal humans. But on one particular night, a strange light came from the mountains above the city. Everyone who stared into the light changed.
They grew long noses, their skin turned red, and their hands wrapped tightly around wooden pincers. They were no longer wholly human, but not wholly monster either. They were Haguètes.
2 The Hunt in the Streets
The Haguètes felt the urge to capture people with their happe. Not to harm, but because it was their nature. They marched through the streets seeking unsuspecting onlookers, and they seized them with their iron pincers.
The priest tried to exorcise them, but it did not help. The curse could not be broken, only balanced.
3 The Eternal Carnival
Eventually the people of Malmedy learned to live with their cursed fellow citizens. Each year on the same day the Haguètes appear again. They march, they capture, and then – just before sunrise – they vanish into nothing.
The people of Malmedy have learned that this is not a punishment, but a transformation. The Haguètes are no longer their brothers and sisters, but neither are they wholly gone.
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