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Lokeren (Municipality, Province of East Flanders, Belgium)

Last modified: 2012-10-13 by ivan sache
Keywords: lokeren | turnip | waasland | football | sint-niklaas | lions: 4 (black) |
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[Flag of Lokeren]

Municipal flag of Lokeren - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 18 September 2006

See also:

Presentation of Lokeren

The municipality of Lokeren (38,276 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 6,750 ha) is located in the region of Waasland. The municipality of Lokeren is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Lokeren, Daknam and Eksaarde.

Ivan Sache, 18 September 2006

Municipal flag of Lokeren

The municipal flag of Lokeren is quartered per saltire black and white with the Waasland turnip near the hoist.
According to According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel [w2v02], the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 29 April 1985, confirmed by the Executive of Flanders on 11 March 1986 and published in the Belgian official gazette on 8 June 1986.
The colours of the flag come from the arms of the former municipalities of Eksaarde and Lokeren, whereas the turnip, shown in the former arms of Lokeren, is used in the crest of the today's arms of Lokeren.

According to Servais [svm55a], the former arms of Lokeren show on a white field a black St. Lawrence's gril surmounted by the Waasland turnip, whereas the arms of Eksaarde were white with a black chevron surmounted by a crown. These arms were granted by (Dutch) Royal Decree on 7 October 1818 and confirmed by (Belgian) Royal Decree on 31 May 1838. The origin of these arms has been lost.

The story of the Waasland turnip is told by Servais as follows (quoting the translation from the International Civic Heraldry website):

Emperor Charles V once visited the city of Sint Niklaas and obviously a crowd gathered to see the emperor. Among these was a small farmer holding a huge turnip, which he wanted to hand to the emperor. The guards, however, prevented the farmer to reach the emperor. The emperor, however, noticed that something was happening and asked the farmer what he had in his hands. The farmer answered that he had a giant fruit and that he wanted to give it to the emperor. The emperor was intrigued and let the farmer pass the guards. The emperor accepted the turnip and awarded the farmer with a large purse.
Seeing the reward for a simple turnip, a local horsebreeder imagined the award he would fetch if he gave the emperor a good horse. So he offered the emperor a beautiful horse. The emperor responded, saying that for a beautiful horse, he would donate one of his precious possessions, and handed the breeder the turnip. Embarrassed the breeder had to accept the turnip, which ever since has been the symbol of the Waasland and its fertile soil.

The famous turnip is portrayed on the municipal flags of Lokeren, Sint-Gillis-Waas, Sint-Niklaas and Waasmunster.

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat, Jarig Bakker & Ivan Sache, 18 September 2006

Sporting Lokeren Oost-Vlanderen

The football club "Sporting Lokeren Oost-Vlanderen" is the result of club mergings in the neighbouring towns of Lokeren and Sint-Niklaas.

Club history

"RC Lokeren" was founded by Liberals on 1 April 1907; it merged on 15 August 1915 with "Football Club Lokeren" to form "Racing Athletic & Football Club Lokeren", that joined the Belgian Football League in 1920 and was incorporated, as "RC Lokeren", on 22 December 1922. With new statutes, the club was renamed "Racing Football Club Lokeren" on 19 July 1945. On 3 July 1951, the club was awarded the honorific title of "Royal" and renamed "Koninklijke Racing Club Lokeren".
"Standaard FC Lokeren" was founded by Catholics on 13 May 1931 and joined the Belgian Football League the same year. On 13 September 1967, the club was awarded the honorific title of "Royal" and renamed "Koninklijke Standaard FC Lokeren".
On 22 June 1970, the two Lokeren clubs merged to form "Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren" ("KSC Lokeren").

"Football Club Beerschoot", founded in 1920, was renamed on 13 July 1921 "Voetbalvereeniging Beerschot-Sint-Niklaas". The club joined the Belgian Football League on 5 July 1922 as "Sint-Niklaassche SK". On 24 April 1951, the club was awarded the honorific title of "Royal" and renamed "Koninklijke Sint-Niklaasse Sportkring". The spelling of the club's name was modernized to "Koninklijke Sint-Niklase Sportkring" on 27 March 1974.
"Football Club Excelsior Saint-Nicolas" was founded on 12 November 1912. Suppressed on 21 August 1921, the club reemerged on 13 September 1922 as "Excelsior Football Club Saint-Nicolas". On 29 June 1927, the club took the Dutch name of "Excelsior Athletic Club Sint-Niklaas". On 25 June 1936, the club was awarded the honorific title of "Royal" and renamed "Royal Excelsior Athletic Club Sint-Niklaas".
In July 1989, the two Sint-Niklaas clubs merged to form "Koninklijke Sint-Niklase SK Excelsior".

In 1998, "Koninklijke Sint-Niklase SK Excelsior" became a satellite team of "KSC Lokeren". The two clubs eventually merged in June 2000 to form "Koninklijke Sporting Lokeren Sint-Niklaas Waasland", renamed in June 2003 "Sporting Lokeren Oost -Vlanderen".

The Lokeren football has been playing in the Belgian First League in 1974-1993 and since 1996. The club's best rank is 2nd in 1981. In the 1970s, the results of "KSC Lokeren" yielded to Lokeren the nickname of "Village of the Miracle".
The club played several times the UEFA Cup; on 4 November 1976, 18,000 fans watched "KSC Lokeren" defeating Cruyff's "FC Barcelona" (2-1). Among the famous players of "KSC Lokeren" are Jan Koller, Preben Elkjær Larsen, Grzegorz Lato, Raymond Mommens and René Verheyen.

Ivan Sache, 4 February 2010

Club flags

[Flag of Sporting Lokeren]

Flag of Sporting Lokeren Oost-Vlanderen - Image by Ivan Sache, 4 February 2010

The flag of "Sporting Lokeren Oost-Vlanderen", as seen on photos shown on the club's website, is white with the club's logo in the middle.
The logo combines the traditional colours of Lokeren (black and white, adopted by "RC Lokeren" in 1915) and the Flemish traditional colours (yellow and black). "KSC Lokeren", nicknamed "The Tricolors", used white, yellow and black as its colours. Black and yellow were also the colours of the Sint-Niklaas club, together with blue and green, not retained after the merging.
The logo is OV-shaped for "Oost-Vlaanderen" (East Flanders), with the white letters "OV" charged with an half Flemish lion.

The official flag of "RC Lokeren", 1924, as shown on the club's website, was already mostly black and white, incorporating St. Lawrence's gril from the municipal arms of Lokeren of the time and a yellow lion armed and langued in red on a black field.

[Flag of KSC Lokeren]

Flag of KSC Lokeren - Image by Ivan Sache, 4 February 2010

On 30 July 1970, "KSC Lokeren" inaugurated its new flag, white with the black and yellow new logo of the club.
This flag seems to have been kept in use long after the change in the name of the club, as seen on photos shown on the club's website (photo set dated 29 January 2005).

[Flag of KSC Lokeren]         [Flag of KSC Lokeren]         [Flag of KSC Lokeren]

Supporters' flags of KSC Lokeren - Image by Ivan Sache, 4 February 2010

The same photo set shows a square flag vertically divided yellow-white; a more elaborated flag made of 4 x 3 squares, in turn black, white and Flanders (official lion, with red parts); and a "Lokeren-like" flag, quartered per saltire black-white-yellow-white.

Ivan Sache, 4 February 2010