"Kattenstoet, Festival of the Cats, is a parade in Ypres, Belgium, devoted to the cat. It is held every third year on the second Sunday of May. The parade commemorates an Ypres tradition from the Middle Ages in which cats were thrown from the belfry tower of the Cloth Hall to the town square below. Symbolically reviving this practice for the parade festivities, a jester tosses plush cats from the Cloth Hall belfry down to the crowd, which awaits with outstretched arms to catch one. The throwing of the cats from the belfry is followed by a mock witch burning."