ntinued in the streets when the
people are going home; and there is a great deal of noise for a long
time after all the cafes 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 gin