Each year on Easter Monday parishioners (and others) that visit the church at Tervant, near Beringen in Limburg Province to have the opportunity to get their chosen mode of transport blessed with holy water. Christians believe that Easter, the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, symbolises the beginning of new life. In addition to this the Easter vacation marks the start of spring and the beginning of the new road cycling season. This makes it the perfect time to get your moped, car or pushbike blessed by holy water.
The blessing takes place after the Easter Monday Eucharist Tervant is one of a number of places in Flanders where vehicle blessing of this kind take place.
Father Geert Croes told VRT News that "It's tradition and in recent years we have been doing it here in Tervant on Easter Monday. The water that we are going to use for baptisms is blessed at Easter and we use some of this water to bless the vehicles with. In spring people go out more and so it’s a good time for vehicles to be blessed."
Father Croes added "The intention of the blessing is that God should be with us when we are out on the roads. That he should be near to us and protect us”.
There are many reasons given for getting a vehicle blessed. One woman told VRT News that her daughter is going for her driving test soon and getting the car blessed gives her peace of mind.
Others said that they were doing it because it was tradition or because they felt that it would bring them good luck.