Luxembourg Fest Mass & Pageantry
Sunday, August 11, 2024
10AM – 1PM
Community Park – 106 Beech Street, Belgium, WI
All are welcome to attend our traditional Luxembourg Fest mass. This year’s mass will be presided over by Abbot Joel Rippinger from Aurora, Illinois. Mass music will be provided by the Luxembourg Fest Choir.
Schedule of Events:
10 am: Mass
Immediately following Mass: The 2024 Fest Pageantries, crowning the Fest Duke and Duchess, Karen & Joe Jasper, and honoring the Jacoby family.
Lunch will be available for purchase after pageantries.
NEW: 11:30 am Stick around for an all-ages comedy show featuring magician Glen Gerard!
More about Magician and Comedian Glen Gerard
He’s appeared on Fox, AMC and Comedy Central. He’s headlined the Las Vegas Comedy Festival, and now he’s coming to entertain YOU in Belgium, Wisconsin! After mass, grab some lunch and stick around for the incredible entertainment by Glen Gerard!
Glen pairs side-splitting humor with incredible magic and sleight of hand in this all-ages show. Kids and adults alike will be amazed by this magician who fools all the people all the time.
Presiding Over Mass: Abbot Joel Rippinger, Order of St. Benedict
Sunday’s Catholic Mass will be presided over by Abbot Joel Rippinger, from the Order of St. Benedict. Father Rippinger comes to us from Aurora, Illinois. He serves as Abbot over the monks of Marmion Abbey, where he has been since 1968. An abbot is someone who is the head of an abbey of monks. The term derives from the word “abba” which is Hebrew for “father.”
Rippinger has an undergraduate degree from (then) St. Procopius College and graduate degrees in History from the University of Notre Dame and in Theology and Monastic Studies from the Pontifical University of Saint Anselm in Rome. He teaches A.P. US History and Honors Theology to juniors and seniors at Marmion Academy.
Father Rippinger has a Luxembourg lineage from his father’s side. His grandmother’s maiden name was Schirez, and her parents emigrated from Luxembourg in the 1880s. His grandfather’s parents immigrated here in the 1870s. He was able to stay with relatives in Luxembourg when he was studying in Rome in the ‘70s, and says he “really found I loved the country and felt a genuine sense of being home… It registers in your soul,” he adds.
Father Rippinger visited the LACS in Belgium back when it was first started, but this year will be his first visit to Luxembourg Fest. “I’m looking forward to it!” he exclaims.
Meet your Duke and Duchess- Karen & Joe Jasper from Texas
This year we will be crowning Karen (Ludowissi) and Joe Jasper of Fort Worth, Texas as our Fest Duke and Duchess.
Karen carries the Luxembourgish heritage, with her great grandmother’s (Clara Friemann) grandparents immigrating from Mamer, Luxembourg to Dacada, Wisconsin and grandfather’s (Peter Ludowissi) grandparents coming from Syren, Luxembourg, and setting up their homestead just a short distance from the LACS. Karen first became involved with the LACS after attending Luxembourg Fest in 2012. “I was so excited to meet many distant relatives,” she recalls. “We took a tour of Luxembourg with the LACS in 2013 and had a great time.”
She was asked to join the LACS board in 2014 and has served as the treasurer (2017-2021) and Board Chair (2021-2022). She remains on the board as the past chair and an active participant on the Fest planning committee.
“My favorite part of the Fest weekend is reconnecting with family and friends every year, and making new friends and many fun memories,” says Karen.
Karen and the couple’s two daughters, Liz and Jen, received dual citizenship in 2015. The family owns 13 McDonald’s restaurants in the Fort Worth area and enjoy traveling, entertaining and canning quarts of their Grandma Ludowissi’s pickles.
Our 2024 Honored Family: The Jacoby’s
More than 175 years ago, in 1848, Nicolas Jacobi (1814-1867) and his wife, Anna Marie (Hengel) (1803-1876) immigrated to Belgium, Wisconsin from Hassel, Luxembourg, and became parishioners of St. Nicholas church in Dacada. Their family grew and flourished and still maintains its roots in the area, many of them having participated in last year’s 175th anniversary of the parish.
Now going by “Jacoby” with a “y”, Nicolas and Anna’s descendants along with any other Jacoby relations will be recognized following Sunday’s Luxembourg Fest mass ( August 11 at 10 am) as this year’s Honored Family.
The Jacoby family will host the “Honored Family” booth on Saturday, August 10 from 11am- including extensive genealogical data going back 11 generations and including hundreds of people. “It would be neat if people, when they stop in, could find their name in the book of family research,” said family member Denise Jacoby, who is currently serving her term as our 2023 Luxembourg Fest Duchess with her husband, Denis as her Duke.
In addition to the family tree, the booth will also include a plethora of family photos and artifacts. This booth is a joint effort between multiple Jacoby’s spurring from Nicholas’ son, Franz and his wife, Barbara Feyereisen, but the family welcomes all Jacoby descendants to participate.
For more information on the Jacoby Fest activities, contact Denise at dnddimmer@hotmail.com.
PHOTOS:
- Gary Jacoby (descendant of Franz’s son, Joseph), Denise (Jacoby) Dimmer (descendant of Franz’s son, Henry) and Vernon Jacoby (descendant of Franz’s son, Henry)
- Franz Jacoby (son of Nicholas, born in Hassel)
- Black and white – Franz and Barbara (Feyereisen) Jacoby
Click below to see all Luxembourg Fest Week events!
Questions? Contact the LACS Office at info@lacs.lu or 262-476-5086.