Cantillon Amitié & Joie 40ème Anniversaire Super Gueuze

Description

Cantillon Amitié & Joie 40ème Anniversaire Super Gueuze was a gueuze labeled for a student group in the city of Brussels whose headquarters was in town. The president of the student association was member of the museum board at that time. The name translates to Friendship and Joy, and the beer was labeled for the 40th anniversary of the association using a gueuze that was bottled in 1987 or 1988. The term "Super Gueuze" does not designate a different blend of gueuze, but instead was a marketing term used by Cantillon in the 1980's.^[1]

History/Background

The label is set in green and red colors, which are the official colors of the city of Brussels. Mannekin Pis is wearing a hat that is a typical style for all student associations (French: Cercles). Each year, the Mannekin Pis is dressed up in this manner for Saint V day, a Brussels holiday in which students take the day to celebrate the founding of the Free University of Brussels (French: Université Libre de Bruxelles or ULB, Dutch: Vrije Universiteit Brussel or VUB) which split into two universities in 1970 but which still work closely with each other.

St. V day is celebrated every November 20th. The day's name, commonly referred to as St. V (French: Saint-Verhaegen, Dutch: Sint-Verhaegen) honors Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen who founded the university. Verhaegen was not, however, a canonized saint. The original event dates back to 1888 when a group of approximately 200 students walked out in protest against a reorganization of the university's philosophy of the libre examen(free exam), which is a philosophical ideology which advocates the rejection of the argument of authority in matters of knowledge and freedom of judgment.

This philosophy was made prominent by Henri Poincaré who noted that "thought must never submit, neither to a dogma, nor to a party, nor to a passion, nor to an interest, nor to a preconceived idea, nor to whatever it may be, save to the facts themselves, because, for thought, submission would mean ceasing to be." ("la pensée ne doit jamais se soumettre, ni à un dogme, ni à un parti, ni à une passion, ni à un intérêt, ni à une idée préconçue, ni à quoi que ce soit, si ce n'est aux faits eux-mêmes, parce que, pour elle, se soumettre, ce serait cesser d'être").