Why do *Event functions declared in QWidget as protected ?

[burkav84]

One can re-implement a virtual event handler in a subclass (this is why they are not private).

But if it declared as private, it is possible to reimplement it in subclass
Why not to implement them as private ? It may be caused that in reimplemented event handler it may be need to call QWidget::*Event() of the base class. Correct ?