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Hasselt is best known for its great septennial fete held on the day of Assumption, August 15th.
Fir trees and branches from the neighbouring forest are collected and planted in front of the houses, so that for a few hours Hasselt has the appearance of being restored to its primitive condition as a wood.
It lies about half-way between Hasselt and Louvain, and is still one of the five fortified places in Belgium.
Thus in Overysel, in addition to the canals already mentioned, the Dedemsvaart connects the Vecht with the Zwarte Water near Hasselt; in Drente the Smildervaart and Drentsche Hoofdvaart unites Assen with Meppel, and receives on the eastern side the drainage canals of the Drente fens, namely, the Orange canal and the Hoogeveen Vaart (1850-1860; 1880-1893).
The northern and southern provinces are further connected by the lines Amsterdam - Zaandam (1878) - Enkhuizen (1885), whence there is a steam ferry across the Zuider Zee to Stavoren, from where the railway is continued to Leeuwarden (1883-1885); the Netherlands Central railway, Utrecht - AmersfoortZwoole - Kampen (1863); and the line Utrecht - 's Hertogenbosch (1868-1869) which is continued southward into Belgium by the lines bought in 1898 from the Grand Central Belge railway, namely, via Tilburg to Turnhout (1867), and via Eindhoven (1866) to Hasselt.