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.
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