For this reason, in Christian culture, he accepted the image of an elderly, good man who gives presents during the Christmas Holidays. Extremely interesting is he presented in the Dutch tradition, where he is known as Sinterklaas. Here, in our seaside city, this nice and generous old man has his command center, where he prepares to give presents, i. The ship, made for this occasion by Spanish and Dutch flags, sets off from the port of Alicante towards the Dutch port, but every year it moors somewhere else.
Sinterklaas has numerous helpers, among whom Zwarte Piet stands out. Zwarte Piet is black because he is a Moor from Spain. His tasks are mostly to amuse children and scatter sweets kruidnoten, pepernoten and strooigoed — special Sinterklaas sweets. Sinterklaas himself draws attention with his clothes and appearance — he has a red cape, a red episcopate cap, a pastor and, of course, a thick, white beard.
In mid-December, the emotions associated with waiting for the arrival of a steamer from distant Alicante reach its zenith. Crowds of residents and city authorities want to best accommodate this figure from the south of Europe, which makes the youngest and adults, regardless of social divisions, skin color and religion, happy. At this time, Santa Claus and his parcel have their hands full. Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands in mid-November the first Saturday after 11 Nov by steamboat from Spain along with his helpers.
A different city is selected each year as the official arrival place, followed by his arrival in Amsterdam and other cities the next day. In Amsterdam, Sint arrives in his boat along the Amstel river, greeted by hundreds of children waving flags and many dressed up as Sint or Piet.
He then does a tour of the city on the back of his white horse, Amerigo. The Pieten are a favorite among the children, with some on roller skates, some abseiling down the walls of the Bijenkorf, and almost all giving out candy and pepernoten. Sint leaves them little presents like a pencil, some pepernoten or a chocolate letter. The birthday of Sinterklaas is 6 Dec, but the main celebrations take place the night before, on 5 December, or pakjesavond present evening. In the early evening, children are supposed to sing songs for Sint.
Then there is a knock at the door and a sack of presents is found by the children on the doorstep. Once children are older, another tradition is to write poems and make "surprises" for one another. For example, if a child enjoys Lego, someone may decorate a box as a big Lego brick, hiding the real present inside. Crazy but fun. Every evening while Sint is in the Netherlands there is a "news brief" for children, called the Sinterklaas Journaal , where the activities and antics of Sint and the Pieten play out in a storyline.
Many children will also watch it in school. More info here. Sinterklaas and Christmas are separate holidays, and Christmas decorations don't traditionally appear until after Sint has left, on 6 December. In the Netherlands, 25 December is mostly celebrated with a family meal. Some families are beginning to give presents at Christmas as well, but mostly only at Sinterklaas. The folklore of Saint Nicolas has many parallels with the Germanic mythology. Saint Nicolas has many resemblances with Odin, like the beard, hat and spear nowadays a staff and the cloth bag held by the servants to capture naughty children.
Both Saint Nicolas and Odin ride white horses that can fly through the air. The white eight-legged steed of Odin is named Sleipnir. The poems made during the celebration and the songs the children sing has to do with the fact that Odin was the god of the arts of poetry.
On the origins of the helper there are various explanations. The oldest explanation is that the helpers symbolize the two ravens Hugin and Munin who informed Odin on what was going on.
In later stories the helper depicts the defeated devil. Another, more modern, story is that Saint Nicolas lilberated an Ethiopian boy slave called 'Piter' from Saint Peter from a Myra market, and the boy was so gracious he decided to stay with Saint Nicolas as a helper.
With the influx of immigrants to the Netherlands starting in the late 's, this story is felt by some to be racial. Nowadays Zwarte Piet has become a modern servant who have black faces because they climb through chimneys and get blackened by the soot from the fire. The tools they held cloth bag and staff of birch are chimney cleaning tools.
Until the second world war Saint Nicolas was only helped by one servant. When the Canadians liberated the Netherlands in , they reinstated the celebrations of Sinterklaas for the children. Unaware of the traditions, the Canadians thought that if one Zwarte Piet was fun, several Zwarte Pieten is even more fun. Ever since Saint Nicolas is helped by a group of Zwarte Pieten.
Presents given during this feast are often accompanied by poems, sometimes fairly basic, sometimes quite elaborate pieces of art that mock events in the past year relating to the recipient who is thus at the receiving end in more than one sense.
The gifts themselves may be just an excuse for the wrapping, which can also be quite elaborate. The more serious gifts may be reserved for the next morning.
Since the giving of presents is Sinterklaas's job, presents are traditionally not given at Christmas in the Netherlands, but commercialism is starting to tap into this market. According to tradition, the saint has a Piet for every function: there are navigation Pieten to navigate the steamboat from Spain to Holland, or acrobatic Pieten for climbing up the roofs to stuff presents through the chimney, or to climb through themselves.
Throughout the years many stories have been added, mostly made up by parents to keep children's belief in Saint Nicolas intact and to discourage misbehaviour. In most cases the Pieten are quite lousy at their job, such as the navigation Piet Dutch "wegwijs piet" pointing in the wrong direction.
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