The Papeter

It is a sculpture by the Affligem artist Patrick van Craenenbroeck.
It was inaugurated on December 2, 2007.
The great Marian procession went out with a 'small' fair, feast of Our Lady's Visit, the patroness of the church. It was the Christmas party. In every house they made pie and rice pudding. This gave the people of Essen the nickname Papeters.
According to tradition, we have to look for the origin of 'papeters' in the tradition of hop cultivation. More specifically at the time when the stake fields adorned the wide landscapes and not the wire fields as we know them today. Those stakes could be 6 to 10 meters high. On the feast day of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (June 29) it was time to estimate how high the hops (Humulus Lupulus) had grown. If that was up to 1 meter from the end point of the stake, then there was a real chance that the creeper had reached the top of the stake by the small fairground. This was not the rule, most plants did not make it. The number of creeping plants that had reached the highest point of the pole in a spiral shape by the feast of Our Lady's Visit was counted. So many tubs of rice pudding were then made.
Also in Dentergem (West Flanders) the inhabitants have the nickname Papeters (this in response to a famine). Their statue was also inaugurated in 2007.
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Essenaren's nickname is "papeter". The statue is by ceramicist Patrick Van Craenenbroeck.

The Papeter van Essene, The Papeter van Essene is a sculpture in Essene, a borough of the Belgian municipality of Affligem. The bronze statue was made by artist Patrick Van Craenenbroeck. A papeter is the historical mocking name of the Essenaars. The statue was donated by the Essene trade committee. Affligem, Image in Flanders,