Belgian traditions.. Blogging Marathon 2014 Post 5

The house move has given us new insights into they ways of life here- often not easily privy to immigrants. One of my neighbours is N, who lives across the street. We'd bumped into her the very first day of our move, searching for the bakery and she had been very friendly, pointing out the general directions for a lot of things. Her daughter, E, is equally friendly, also willing to chat up with me in English.

The day of New Year's eve, we'd been sleeping till late. Had people over for dinner the previous night and a clogged sink to work on, raises eyebrows,  all this is quite besides the point. The doorbell chimed (yes, ours actually does) and there stood two little girls, dressed fully for the cold, singing - Oud jaar, Nieuwe jaar, we wensen jullie een gelukkige nieuwejaar! (Old year, new year, we wish you a very happy new year). These were E's daughters and after their song they waited, I had no idea what to do, though I did register a bag hanging around their necks.

 E, who was accompanying them, informed me that New Years eve is known as Sint. Sylvester Vooravond  and there is tradition followed in Antwerp region, where kids go from house to house singing new year wishes and people give them candies, chocolates, cents, fruits,... The next day, New Year's day, children read out a letter loud wishing Happy New Year to their parents, grandparents. The school had already sent a letter with the kids to this effect, though I did not make the connection until I was told about it.

E and her girls invited Big G to go along with them, and warned me to expect at least 100 kids over. They even loaned me some chocolates to tide over till I made a super quick trip to the store. Every two mins, there were kids coming to sing wensen liedjes (wishing songs), with their parents standing at the gates. Big G was out for 2 hours and came hauling a  big bag of loot. She told me there were some cookie songs, so the person listening would know you did not want chocolates. Lil G helped me welcome kids and drop candies into their bags. This continued till 1 in the afternoon and resumed from 3 pm onwards till there was light. Here is a pic of the collection, part of it.

Here's a link on how countries welcome the New Year.

Even as I'm writing this blog post, my door bell has rung twice and this time I opened it to children in groups of 3, celebrating the Driekoningen dag, i.e.,  the Epiphany, read more here . It is normally celebrated on Jan 6,  but moved to today as it is a holiday. A good way to give away the candy and chocolates from our stash, I think.