About Saint Nicolas - To Liat and all others - also shoe information for Belzebu
Sender
Raindog Harry
Created
16.12.2004 13:44
I should tell you about Saint Nicolas, need to find
(or take) the time to do that. Celebrated only
(practically only) in Holland. So much fun, it's
about an old bishop from Mira, believed to have lived
in Turkey, though latest investigations seem to lead
to Greece as the country of origin. He seems to have
been a nice guy, giving presents to people. We
celebrate that, on 5 (some people on 6) December. He
looks a bit like, but is quite different from the
Sandman, in other words, Saint-Nicolas is not Santa
Claus, which sounds almost the same. Santa Claus
rides in a carriage (is that the correct word?) drawn
by reindeer (raindogs? no, reindeer ;-)), Saint
Nicolas rides on the roofs of houses, on a horse, you
see, I am taking the time now, luckily, for the story
has to be told in December. So, Saint Nicolas rides
on roofs, he has helpers, the socalled Zwarte Pieten,
Black Peters (sounds strange in translation, but ok).
And they are extraordinary guys, for they can climb
down into the chimneys, all the way down into the
living rooms of people. Children are allowed to place
their shoes (Shoes Belzebuth! Shoes) near the stove,
fireplace or whatever, they place a carrot in them
for the horse, some water as well, and maybe a lump
of sugar, and when they wake up in the morning (and
they will VERY early I can tell you) they are
surprised and happy to see that the carrot, water,
sugar has gone, and that their shoes are filled with
presents. Pure magic!!! And in addition, as if this
is not in itself beautiful enough, there is also
Present Evening (Pakjesavond in Dutch) on which the
growups, but also the children) make "surprises" for
eachother, that is to say, with paper, glue,
painting, whatever, you make something for somebody,
preferably to tease him a bit, you write a nice poem
as well in which you can say the things that you have
always wanted to say to somebody (but in a funny, not
too mean way ;-)), and you sign the poem of course
with Saint-Nicolas. So your ass is covered, it isn't
you who knew and told all this about the other
person ;-) Very old, and very beautiful and very
handy tradition! Children love it. Saint-Nicolas
already enters the country in November, in a boat, he
comes from Spain (the children do not know about the
real background, Turkey or Greece where the real
bishop lived), to them he comes from Spain in a boat
loaded with presents. What a magic!! So they make
drawings of the boat, with flags, etc. And of course
the children try to be good to their parents, for if
not the Peters may put them in a large bag and take
them with them to Spain as punishment (This part of
the story is nowadays considered to be not so wise
pedagogically speaking, so parents do no longer
threaten their children with this, but in the past, o
la la, you had better be a good kid!!!) On Saint-
Nicolas evening, it can happen that the Saint comes
to visit you in the house, with Peters as well, black
as charcoal. The children are asked to come and sit
on the lap of the Saint. Nicolas has a big book of
course in which everything is written about all the
children, he seems to know everything. He knows this
of course as the Peters listen in the chimneys and
they will tell Saint Nicolas everything that you did
as a child. Did you tease or beat up your little
brother? Nicolas will know, and of course no presents
for you, or not so big ones. The feast is accompanied
with a lot of Saint Nicolas songs, we sing them with
the children, when they stand around their shoes,
they sing beautifully of course, for they know that
the Saint and the Peters will hear them. The whole
feast is sheer magic people, the best feast that we
have in this little country. The arrival of the Saint
in November is on tv, with a big boat, a lot of
Peters, they are acrobats, can climb in the ropes of
the boat, juggle, throw candy from the boat to the
shore, etc. Also in the houses they bang on windows
and doors, your heart leaps up, even the old hearts
of the grown-ups, the door opens, a black hand
appears through the crack, and hey, there the candy
comes, they throw it into the room with force (it's
nice to be a Peter! ;-))
So, this is how we spend our evenings in the first
week of December, making surprise packages, poems,
lots of stress and time pressure for most of us, but
the excited faces of the little children when they
discover something in their shoes, or if they get
presents from a big bag on the evening itself when
the saint comes to their houses, (sometimes he does
not come himself but lets a Peter put a bag with
presents at the front door, who bangs on the window
and then leaves), that is something that is magical
to both young and old.
