Happy 21st of july

Day 4,627, 07:59 • Published in Belgium Cyprus • by Vincent Pain

Today we celebrate our national holiday. The 21st of july.

Belgica 'Belgium', several thousand years old. The name originated from the roman opressor. According to etymologists, the name may have come from Gaulish, Belgae would mean 'men of the alliance'.



The original population was a mixture of Celts and Germanics that spread all over Europe. They have setled in Turkey from Scandinavia to Spain and in the east and therefore also in this region. The Belgae's residential area covered almost all of present-day Belgium and parts of France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. A number of tribes of the Belgae also inhabited Britannia long before this was so called. The Belgae south of the Ardennes were mainly of Celtic descent, north of the Ardennes of Germanic descent, but all had (partial) Germanic descent.

At the end of the 5th century, the territory of Gallia Belgica merged into the Merovingian empire founded by the Frankish king Clovis. As a Latin name, Belgica was later also used as a synonym for the Seventeen Provinces and the Low Countries.

Happy 21st of july!