Talk:Aalst, Belgium

Untitled
There should be a disambiguation here betweeb Aalst in Belgium and Aalst in the Netherlands (next to Eindhoven). I post that here since I don't yet know how to do that myself.
 * Done. &mdash; Vildricianus 16:33, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Belfry
I'd like to point out that the building in the picture is not the "town hall" but the belfry (Dutch: belfort) of Aalst. The town hall (Dutch: stadhuis) is situated about 20 m to the right of this building. I had changed this to "belfry" earlier, but someone restored the mistake.isidora

Location
The article currently asserts that Aalst is 19 miles NW of Brussels. But Encyclopedia Britannica claims the true distance is 15 miles/24 kilometers. Who's right? --Gwern (contribs) 17:29 17 December 2006 (GMT)

The distance by road is 17 miles; the geographical distance is 15 miles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.186.164.158 (talk) 08:09, 1 September 2016 (UTC)

Language
I came here looking for info on which language is spoken in Aalst. Flemish, Walloon, dutch, french, German? I am going to have to look elsewhere i suppose. This made me wonder why the sidebox doesn't have a 'language' section? 81.111.39.191 (talk) 14:53, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Flemish is a regional form of Dutch, and the official language of all Flemish municipalities is Dutch (although a small number also have French as official language). So the official language in Aalst is Dutch, the colloquial, everyday form is Flemish, and then there's also a purely local dialect. Fram (talk) 15:02, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Education
In Aalst are different schools situated.


 * Sint-Maarteninstituut
 * Sint-Jozefscollege
 * Stedelijke Freinetschool De Notelaar
 * Sint-Vincentius Gesubs Vrije Oefenschool
 * Vrije R. Steinerschool Aalst en Vestigingen
 * Gesubsidieerde Vrije Basisschool De Linde
 * De Speelplaneet
 * De Luchtballon
 * Don Bosco Blo
 * DvM
 * Koninklijk Technisch Atheneum "de ledebaan"
 * Koninklijk Technisch Atheneum 1
 * Koninklijk Lyceum
 * Koninklijk Atheneum
 * Vrij Technisch Instituut
 * St-Augustinusinstituut Verpleegkunde
 * Odisee
 * HOGent
 * Stedelijke basisschool De Regenboog — Preceding unsigned comment added by Karootje (talk • contribs) 13:39, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Anti-Semitism
The anti-semitic imagery on display in the 2019 carnival, repeated in advance materials for the 2020 carnival, and UNESCO's response, is appropriately included in the article on the town, but a consideration of WP:WEIGHT suggests that full details are more relevant to the page on the carnival itself than to the page on the town where the carnival takes place. The suggestion in 's |recent edit summary that keeping brief mention here under the explicit heading "Anti-Semitism" while providing a link to fuller treatment at Carnival of Aalst is somehow "burying" the topic is neither accurate nor helpful. --Andreas Philopater (talk) 10:59, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Execution site of Jan de Lichte
The Flemish gang leader and outlaw Jan de Lichte, who became known to a wider audience by the VTM and Netflix TV series in 2020 ("De bende van Jan de Lichte"), was executed and wheeled in Aalst on 13 November 1748. I suggest to mention this fact in the text.

Is the site of his execution still preserved today and can be viewed by tourists? Carsten

Controversy
In December 2019, anticipating UNESCO's response to the decision of the carnival organizers to double down on the widely reported use of anti-Semitic stereotypes [...]

This is a misrepresentation of how carnival is organized, as it reads as if carnival (and the subjects depicted in the parade) are centrally decided upon by "the organizers". This is not the case: the subjects/topics of floats and participants are decided individually by each registered group. I'll leave it up as is, as I don't know of any English sources confirming this. If anyone could adjust appropriately, I'd appreciate it. Call me Matt - Bling Collector 12:39, 15 December 2022 (UTC)