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Gooik (Municipality, Province of Flemish Brabant, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Gooik - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 30 January 2007

Presentation of Gooik
Municipal flag of Gooik

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Presentation of Gooik

The municipality of Gooik (8,879 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 3,970 ha) is located 20 km west of Brussels in the region of Pajottenland. The municipality of Gooik is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Gooik, Kester, Leerbeek and Oetingen.

In the past on the moor of Kester, a doleful voice repeating over and over "Where shall I put it? Where shall I put it?" was often heard. This was the ghost of Karloken, who rambled every night with a stone on his shoulder. The man had passed away years ago, but he had to bring back the stone to the place where he had stolen it, otherwise his soul would never reach the paradise. Therefore his ghost rambled every night, searching for the place. A joker once heard the complaint "Where shall I put it?" and answered "Stupid, put it where you have found it!". A peal of laughter broke in the air, a windgust shaked the trees and the joker got off with a fright. Since then, the voice of the ghost was never heard again.
The story comes from Brabantsch Sagenboek, an anthology of Brabantian folk tales published by A. De Cock and Is. Teirlinck in 1909.

Ivan Sache, 30 January 2007

Municipal flag of Gooik

The municipal flag of Gooik is white with three black mallets placed 2 and 1.
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 16 April 1984, confirmed by the Executive of Flanders on 3 December 1984 and published in the Belgian official gazette on 8 July 1986.
The flag is a banner of the municipal arms.

The municipal website shows the complete arms of Gooik, with an oval shield crowned, placed on a white pedestal and supported by two savages each holding a club. The mallet is used as a graphic element everywhere on the website and there is a big monument made of three mallets on a traffic circle. At the monument's dedication, someone impersonated "De eerste meier van Gooik en tevens eigenaar van het wapenschild met de drie hamers, Lancelot de Gottignies" i.e. "The first lord of Gooik and also owner of the shield with the three hammers, Lancelot de Gottignies". There have been several Lancelots de Gottignies: the oldest known lived in the XVth century (Lancelot I, d. 1468), the most recent in the XVIIIth century (Lancelot-Ignace-Joseph, Baron de Gottignies and Gooik, Chamberlain and State Councillor). The arms of Gottignies were adopted in 1275. Gottignies is today part of the municipality of Le Rœulx.

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat, Jan Mertens & Ivan Sache, 11 February 2007