NEW YEAR'S DAY
New Year's Day is a great day in Belgium.
December 31, the last day of the old year, is dedicated to St.
Sylvester, and there is a custom, at least in Antwerp, that the child
who gets out of bed last is called a "Sylvester," and must give the
best of its toys to its brothers and sisters. If one of the older
girls in a family does not finish any sewing or fancy-work she may
have on hand by the end of the day, she is afraid of being haunted by
evil spirits. Some people say that a young woman who does not finish
her work before sunset has no chance of being married for a year. So
they all get their various tasks done, and the last night of the year
is spent in amusement. The whole family, children and all, sit up till
midnight, singing, reciting, or playing games till the clock strikes
twelve, when they all kiss each other, and give wishes for "A Happy
New Year."
In the big towns, however, many of the _petite bourgeoisie_ do not
"bring in the New Year" at home, and the restaurants and cafés are
crowded till twelve o'clock, when healths are drunk, and there is
cheering and singing, which are continued in the streets when the
people are going home; and there is a great deal of noise for a long
time after all the cafés are closed.
It used to be the fashion to fire guns at midnight on New Year's Eve,
but that is not common now except in one part of Belgium, called
Limburg, where any girl who has a lover expects him to fire off shots
in front of her window. The more shots he fires the more she thinks he
loves her, and to reward him she ought to hide a bottle of gin in some
corner outside the house, from which he can drink her health.
Mischievous young men, however, sometimes find the bottle, and drink
the gin before the lover comes, and so the girl often waits till she
hears the shots, and then lowers the bottle by a string from the
window. This funny custom, like many others, is now going out of
fashion.
On New Year's Day all Belgians call on their friends to wish them "A
Happy New Year," when they are offered wine, sweetmeats, and things of
that sort. This paying of visits on New Year's Day goes on to such an
extent in Belgian towns that people who have many friends spend almost
the whole day in walking or driving about from one house to another.
As everyone is doing the same thing, of course a great many people are
not at home when their friends come, and so the hall-table of nearly
every house is covered with calling-cards before evening. The servants
have almost nothing to do all day but answer the door-bell, which is
constantly ringing.
In some towns, Antwerp among others, it is supposed to be quite
allowable for grown-up people, ladies and gentlemen, to kiss anyone
they know on New Year's Day. A Belgian lady once told me that it
brought good luck to kiss an officer of the army; but, of course,
there are limits to this, as there are to kissing under the mistletoe
in England.
In the country parts of South Belgium it is the custom to try to be
the first to call out "Good New Year" when you meet a friend. If you
say it first you have something given you. The children try to
surprise their fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, and all the
friends of the family in this way. They get up early, and hide
themselves, so as to be able to jump out suddenly, and say "_Een Zalig
Nieuwjahr_," which means "A Good New Year." All day long they go on
doing it, and are never tired of telling each other about the tricks
they have thought of to _verassen_, as it is called, the older people,
who must give them gingerbread or sugar-plums as the penalty for being
surprised in this way.
On New Year's Day in Belgium it is not only your friends who stop you
in the street or call at your house. Every man, woman, boy, or girl
who has done any work for you, and often those who have done nothing,
expect to get something. They are very greedy. Railway-porters who
have once brought a box to your house, ring your bell and beg.
Telegraph-boys, scavengers paid by the town, bell-ringers, policemen,
shop-boys, everyone comes bowing and scraping, and men who in England
would be ashamed to take a "tip" will touch their hats, and hold out
their hands for a few pence. They don't wait to be offered money; they
ask for it, like common street-beggars asking alms.
January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, is known in Flanders as _Groot
Nieuwjahr_ ("Great New Year"), and is kept to some extent by the
working-people in the same way as the first day of the year. Mondays
are always idle days with working-men in Belgium, and the first Monday
after Epiphany is the idlest of them all. It is called _Verloren
Maandag_, or, in French, _Lundi Perdu_, which means "Lost Monday,"
because no one does any work. The day is spent going about asking for
money, and at night there is a great deal of drinking. On one of these
Mondays not long ago some drunken troopers of a cavalry regiment
stabbed the keeper of a village public-house near Bruges, broke his
furniture to pieces, and kept the villagers in a state of terror for
some hours.
One very bad thing about the lower-class Belgians is that when they
drink, and begin to quarrel, they use knives, and wound or kill those
who have offended them. By a curious superstition it is thought
unlucky to work on Lost Monday, so the people get drunk, and more
crimes of violence are committed on that day than at any other time of
the year.