About official shoe shopping-day ...

Today is “official shoe shopping-day” in Belgium. It’s an important day for the Belgian people, it’s also a bank holiday … except for shoe shops. On shoe shopping day, everyone has to buy at least 2 shoes (called “a pair” in local language). One legged people are allowed to buy only one shoe (“half a pair”) but they have to prove they’ve only one leg so they need to get a leave at the doctor’s.


The week before OSSD, all shoe shops are closed. They’re piling up their stocks to have enough shoes to serve the Belgian people. If they fail, it can be a disaster. Unserved people might become angry and burn the shop down. This is fully understandable as there’s also the shoe police who will check if everyone has bought at least 2 shoes. If you can’t prove this, you might end up in jail.

As the shoe shops are closed, there’s also emergency services for people who lose one or more shoes during that week. Ambulances hold spare shoes in all sizes so a phone call to 100 will fix the problem.

There’s this charity program for people who can’t afford to buy 2 shoes. Every year the rich and the famous organize events to raise money to give to the poor people. Last year it was “shoes across Belgium”, the year before “Shoe aid” …

Official shoe shopping-day is one big party. The day starts with brekkie - normally Belgian people have beer and choccies for breakfast, but at this special day everyone has croissants and fresh fruit juice.

After this people go outside and rush to the shoe stores. Days and weeks before, they have been looking up on new models, browsing on the internet, reading fashion magazines, … Rich people invited fashion consultants and paid them well to get all the information on the latest shoe fashion.

In the afternoon, when all shoe shops are empty, there’s a big shoe parade. At this parade, everyone is wearing shoes – I’m not exaggerating – everyone !! The day ends with a real barbecue (with burn wounds and stuff) and a big party. Everyone gets badly drunk …

Official shoe shopping-day is big in Belgium. It’s bigger then Christmas and Easter. But it’s a Belgian thing. The government is trying to export this very interesting event now to other countries. Here’s an attempt to introduce OSSD in India.

We’ll see what the future will bring. Anyway, I have to go now, celebrating the last hours of this very special day.