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KIRMESS EVE.

See illustration on double-page of Supplement.

THE SAILOR'S WIFE.--FROM THE PAINTING BY G. HAQUETTE. August, the Feast of the Assumption, and culminates in the grand procession of Notre Dame. The country folks in holiday garb and strangers also come to see the sight, throng the city the day

IRMESS, which has become here almost synonymous with a

K fancy fair held for some charitable purpose, accompanied gramme of the Antwerp Kirmess comprises a grand distribution

with music, dancing, tableaux vivants, and the like, was at first the designation of the out-door church festivals celebrated in Holland and Belgium. How rude and riotous these assemblages soon became we know from the pictures of Teniers and other artists who depicted scenes of boorish revelry. Every village used to have its own Kirmess, but now these festivals are restricted to a few towns, and form the chief attraction of the year to the peasantry for miles around. In many cases the Kirmess is so elaborately gotten up, so artistic and striking in every detail, that strangers from all quarters flock to see it. Perhaps the great Kirmess of Antwerp is the most important. It takes place on the 15th of

of prizes for archery and rifle-shooting, and the procession of the guilds with their prizes is the opening scene. Each advances with its flag in front and a pole displaying the trophies it has won; in many cases the banners are of velvet, richly embroidered, and the prizes are displayed on velvet cushions.

The most striking moment, however, is when the life-size statue of Our Lady is brought forth from the cathedral. It is borne high on the shoulders of six stalwart bearers; its robes are richly embroidered with gold and silver, and the train of gold tinsel is thickly studded with roses. As it moves along to the Grande Place, surrounded with banners, and in clouds of incense, the crowd be

comes denser, and with the quaint gables of the square and the great cathedral porch, forms a picturesque combination, the women with their strange head-dresses of gold plates and Mechlin lace, or in tall straw bonnets and quilled lace caps with long lappets, being a characteristic feature. The feast lasts three days. All the exhibitions are open; there are balls at the theatre, fireworks at the citadel, and dancing in the open air in the Place Verte. As a rule, the Kirmess is devoted to secular amusements rather than to religious observances, and they differ from each other only in magnitude. The term is used for similar gatherings in Germany as well as the Flemish countries. The use of the term in America may be either a tradition or a revival of the old Dutch festivals kept by the early settlers in Manhattan Island; but the Kirmess is here distinctly an in-door entertainment of a more or less exclusive character, with a charitable motive to justify it.

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