Mantelsonndeg in Belval: a Sunday for a new coat

Every year, at the very end of October, Luxembourg gives the season a day of its own: a Sunday when shops that usually stay shut open their doors.

It even has a name. Mantelsonndeg. Coat Sunday. The Sunday you go out to find the coat that will keep you warm all winter.

This year it falls on Sunday 25 October, and Belval Plaza opens for it, from 10:00 to 18:00.

In short: Mantelsonndeg, Luxembourg’s Coat Sunday, is on Sunday 25 October 2026. Belval Plaza is open from 10:00 to 18:00, the first hour of parking is free, and the clocks go back an hour that morning.

A Sunday, because there was no other day

The habit goes back to the early twentieth century. Most people then worked six days a week, and if a family needed something as serious as a winter coat, Sunday was the only day left to go and buy it.

So people came into town from the villages. The cafés were open, friends found each other, and an errand slowly turned into a day out.

Picture it for a moment. The first cold mornings. A list of who needs what. A coat held up against someone’s shoulders, and a voice saying: it suits you, keep it on.

The tradition faded, as traditions do, and in 2005 Luxembourg City’s shopkeepers brought it back. It has returned every autumn since, in the capital and in towns across the country, always on a Sunday just before All Saints’ Day.

This year, in Belval

An old habit suits Belval. The blast furnaces, a few minutes’ walk from the Plaza, were built for steel. They have stood still for years now, rust-red and enormous, while a whole neighbourhood grew up around them. On Coat Sunday you can buy a coat in their shadow.

When	Sunday 25 October, 10:00 to 18:00
Where	Belval Plaza, 7 to 14 avenue du Rock’n’Roll
Parking	First hour free, two hours free with your first purchase
By train	A few minutes on foot from Belval-Université station

One honest note. This is an opening for the shops, and I can’t promise that every single door will be open. If there’s one shop you’re going for, open its page on this site: I’ve added this Sunday’s hours to each of them, and I’ll change them if I hear otherwise.

The hour you get back

This Sunday also comes with a spare hour. At 03:00 that morning the clocks go back to 02:00, and winter time begins.

One extra hour. You could spend it asleep. You could spend it in a fitting room, deciding between the grey coat and the navy one. I won’t judge either.

Just don’t leave the new coat in its bag. When the doors close at 18:00 the sun will already have set, an hour earlier by the clock than the day before, and the coat will have its first job to do.

If a coat doesn’t take all day

It rarely does. Belval has plenty more on that Sunday:

• Brunch with Dracula at Nyx, 11:00 to 15:00. A Spooky Family Brunch with a science show for the children. €35 per child, €49 per adult, and booking is essential.
• The National Archives open their doors from 13:00, with guided tours at 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00 and a workshop until 16:30. Free.
• A guided tour of the blast furnace at 14:30, €10. The best way to meet the neighbours properly.
• BTS Experience at Kinepolis Belval, from 14:30.
• And for a Sunday that ends louder than it began, Onslaught at MK Bar, from 17:00, €25.99 to €30.

It’s Halloween week too, and the whole programme is here, day by day.

Getting here

Trains run normally on Sunday 25 October. The railway works this month only affect Monday to Thursday evenings, so the weekend is untouched. The full calendar of the works is here.

Mantelsonndeg: quick answers

Are you a new-coat-every-winter person, or is the old one good for a few more? Tell me.

Take Care ☀️

Where it happens

The 2 places in this story, on the map of Belval.