When I heard 'Sinterklaas", I really wondered what is it. In the last days of 2018 which we have come to the Netherlands, I wanted to write about the most important Dutch celebration of the year and was celebrated on the 5th of December annually. The date is the birthday of Sinterklaas that Dutch say Sint Nicolaas.
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| SInterklaas, his grey horse (schimmel) and the book |
According to history, he arrived in the Netherlands in the middle of November. It's called "Intocht". The word's meaning is arrival in English. However, it is used only for talking about Sinterklaas. He arrives on a "stoomboot" (Steamboat). Because he lives in Spain and it comes from Madrid even though there is not sea 🤷🏻♀️ (Dutch also think it is nonsense 😅) And, the boat is full of gifts and his helpers "Zwarte Pieten" (black piets).
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| The boat is full of gifts and black piets |
The book which Sinterklaas holds contains all information about children and how they behaved during the year (You can see the red book in the first photo). He rides his horse on the rooftops of the houses during three weeks that he stays in the country. In this period, the children may put a shoe with a carrot and sugar cubes at the chimney or at the radiator, once or twice a week, before they go to sleep. Then, during the night, "Zwarte Piet" climbs the chimney, takes carrot for his horse and puts a gift in the shoe. For this reason, "Zwarte Piet" is black. It is the soot on his face.
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| Delicious Pepernoten and Chocolade Letter 😋 |
In addition to a present, he throws sweet things which are called "pepernoten" (cookies with cacao). Also, children put the chocolate letter of their own names' capital letter in their shoes unless they are sold out. Other typical foods are;
- Marsepein (marzipan)
- Speculaas (a type of biscuit)
- Banketletters (a pastry crust with a sugared almond paste filling)
- Taaitaai (another type of biscuit with almond)
- Borstplaat (like almond paste).
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| The plate from the course in the 5th December🎅🏼 |
These sweet foods are given to children who behave well by "Zwarte Pieten" to reward them. However, families tell to their children that "Zwarte Piet" would hit naughty children with his "roe" (bundle of birch twigs) and "Sinterklaas" would put them in a gunny bag to take them to Spain. (This threatening part of the story hasn't been used anymore.)😅
Still, each child will need to appear in front of "Sinterklaas" and sit on his knee, while he is reading from his book. Usually, he summarizes what the child has achieved during the year and gives some small recommendations. And of course, "Sinterklaas" usually asks to sing a song from many options. Because there are a lot. (I have learned the simplest song😁)
The 5th of December is called "Pakjesavond" ("Pakje" means a present wrapped in paper). This is a big day for children. Because, while the whole family is sitting on the room, the door is being knocked loudly or "pepernoten" were being thrown suddenly (It is a big excitement for a child). When the children go to the door, they see a big bag with presents.🎁🎉 As you can guess, parents request their neighbors' help to organize it. The celebration is different for the elders. They can show their poetic and creative talent. People who decided to celebrate the evening together draw names. And they should write a poem. It is called "Sinterklaasgedicht".
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Sinterklaas and children
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The Facts of Sinterklaas:
- The figure of "Sinterklaas" is based on Saint Nicholas Myra who lived in the 4th century near modern Demre, Turkey (It is our home country).
- The body of the saint was re-buried in Bari, Italy. (It belonged to Spain at the moment that the celebration became popular. So, the boat comes from Spain.)
- It is believed that one legend of Saint Nicholas of Myra was bringing back to life three murdered children. That is why he is the patron of the children.
- Due to a legend where he helped a boat out of the storm. So he is also the saint of the sailors and fishermen. And therefore many harbor cities like Amsterdam have Saint Nicholas as their patron. For this reason, one of the main churches in Amsterdam is the Nicholas Church.
- Santa Claus is derived from Sinterklaas. Namely, Dutch colonists took this tradition with them to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in the American colonies in the 17th century.
- "Zwarte Piet" appears firstly in the celebration in 1850 in a book of the Amsterdam teacher Jan Schenkman. Although we will never know why he added a black character to the story, there are various theories about it. Also, there is a lot of discussions in the Netherlands. Generally, any talk show discusses this issue from September to December. Some people think that the tradition continues the partisanship of slavery and should change the color of "Zwarte Pieten". And the other part wants to stick with the tradition.
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| Zwarte Pieten |
Actually, I have learned all the things that I wrote from the video of Bart de Pau (the owner of "Learndutch.org" youtube channel. When I watched the video, I liked so much and I thought that I should really write a post about the tradition. 😍 And, I added some parts from "Britannica.org".
I hope that you enjoy and inform a lot during reading the post. 😊
And we wish that 2019 will come more health, wealth, love and the desire of learning new things for all🙏🏼 Happy new year 🎊🎈
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