Snowball fights banned in some Belgian communities

In what could be called a spoil-sport move with all the snow around these days, two different communes in the Flanders region of Belgium have banned snowball fights.

Not only is the activity banned, but police are enforcing the ban and there are fines to be paid. If you should throw a snowball in either Wingene or Lichtervelde in western Flanders, you could have to cough up 100 Euros. The mayors of the two communes were quoted as saying that snowball fights put both children's and adults' health at risk and they even compared it to throwing stones. Some local news outlets are theorizing that the fines may be used to bolster the budget for regional authorities. It does seem to be a pity, as the region is famous for snowballs. The Flemish city of Leuven apparently once boasted the title of the "snowball capital" of the world when one of the largest snowball fights in history happened there. Apparently in October 2009, around 5,700 Belgian students decided to break the world record for a snowball fight, and this required that 120 tons of snow had to be brought into the city's central square. In the meantime, flights have been grounded and schools forced to close temporarily due to the heavy snowfall, so good luck with that ban! Now one could understand if the snowballs looked like the one below ...

Kamyar Adl

Enormous snowball made in South Park in a snow-covered Oxford in February 2007.

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