The IJzerwake (Dutch, "Yser Wake") is an organisation that split off from the IJzerbedevaart, and unites the more radical Flemish nationalists.
Each year in August, they organise a commemoration of the victims of the two World Wars, combined with a rally for Flemish independence and a more conservative government policy.
[citation needed] The annual event derives its name from the IJzer river, around which some of the fiercest and most deadly battles of the first World War were fought.
A monument in the field commemorates the Brothers Van Raemdonck, the Flemish soldiers who both fell there on March 26, 1917, killed by enemy fire and apparently having died in each other's arms.
The philosophical concept behind the IJzerwake is that of "Godsvrede" (Truce of God), a medieval term referring to the unification of previously competing factions behind one common cause.