Post by Aylor on Dec 5, 2005 9:18:24 GMT -5
Tonight is St Nicolas Eve! Yay! ;D
What is St Nicolas? It's a feast celebrated mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium.
St Nicolas, originally bishop of Myra in what is now Turkey, is patron of sailors and (unfortunate) children. He was apparently a good man, and he gave tangerines and things to children. December 6 is the day of his death.
In popular folklore, he is now from Spain, no longer from Myra, and he is said to sail from his palace in Spain to the Low Countries every year, arriving the third weekend of November.
Every day after that, children get to put their shoes at the fireplace, to receive little gifts every morning- St Nicolas' servant, Black Pete, is said to come down the chimney at night to bring tangerines, or cookies, or tiny little toys- a pencil, an eraser, or little spicy nuts. Children sometimes leave food with the shoes for St Nicolas and Black Pete, and for St Nicolas' white horse, on which he rides the rooftops.
On the eve of December 5th, at last, is the big feast. Somewhere in the house, children will find an old jute sack full of gifts and sweets- marzipan, gingerbread, sugar animals, and the first letter of their names in chocolate- these letters are about as big as an adult's hand. For the adults, there is bishop's wine, which is warm and sweet.
Many families also include so-called "surprises"- cardboard and paper items to go with a gift. If someone loves flying, for instance, you could make them a big airplane. If they like music, you make a really big musical note out of carboard. With this tends to come a poem- often very bad poems that are supposed to rhyme but don't quite- in which the giver adds a little message.
Because St Nicolas isn't quite as sweet as Christmas: besides rewarding good children, he also punishes the bad ones. Children are told that if they are very bad, Black Pete will put them in that jute sack and take them along to Spain! Often the poems will have a little sting to them, playfully pointing the receiver of the gifts to their faults. For a friend who was obsessing over boys I once made a big ugly caveman with a matching poem.
The first year a girl has fallen in love, she traditionally gets a "lover" as one of her gifts- a really friggin big, flat gingerbread cookie in the shape of a man in silly clothes.
It's one of the nicest evenings in the year, really. Of course there is a lot of dressing up as St Nicolas- a man with a long white beard, red robes, a red hat, and a golden staff- or Black Pete (who is obviously black, dressed in nice bright colours, with a big feather on his baret). Children under age, say, 8, tend to believe the man is real, and there is always a special "newsreport" when the great man arrives in the country.
If all this sounds terribly like Santa Claus, that's right. Dutch and Belgian immigrants in the USA took this feast with them, and Americans took it over- though they modified it a little, basically putting it on Christmas and fattening the poor saint up. "Santa Claus" is derived from "Sinterklaas", the loving nickname for St Nicolas.
What is St Nicolas? It's a feast celebrated mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium.
St Nicolas, originally bishop of Myra in what is now Turkey, is patron of sailors and (unfortunate) children. He was apparently a good man, and he gave tangerines and things to children. December 6 is the day of his death.
In popular folklore, he is now from Spain, no longer from Myra, and he is said to sail from his palace in Spain to the Low Countries every year, arriving the third weekend of November.
Every day after that, children get to put their shoes at the fireplace, to receive little gifts every morning- St Nicolas' servant, Black Pete, is said to come down the chimney at night to bring tangerines, or cookies, or tiny little toys- a pencil, an eraser, or little spicy nuts. Children sometimes leave food with the shoes for St Nicolas and Black Pete, and for St Nicolas' white horse, on which he rides the rooftops.
On the eve of December 5th, at last, is the big feast. Somewhere in the house, children will find an old jute sack full of gifts and sweets- marzipan, gingerbread, sugar animals, and the first letter of their names in chocolate- these letters are about as big as an adult's hand. For the adults, there is bishop's wine, which is warm and sweet.
Many families also include so-called "surprises"- cardboard and paper items to go with a gift. If someone loves flying, for instance, you could make them a big airplane. If they like music, you make a really big musical note out of carboard. With this tends to come a poem- often very bad poems that are supposed to rhyme but don't quite- in which the giver adds a little message.
Because St Nicolas isn't quite as sweet as Christmas: besides rewarding good children, he also punishes the bad ones. Children are told that if they are very bad, Black Pete will put them in that jute sack and take them along to Spain! Often the poems will have a little sting to them, playfully pointing the receiver of the gifts to their faults. For a friend who was obsessing over boys I once made a big ugly caveman with a matching poem.
The first year a girl has fallen in love, she traditionally gets a "lover" as one of her gifts- a really friggin big, flat gingerbread cookie in the shape of a man in silly clothes.
It's one of the nicest evenings in the year, really. Of course there is a lot of dressing up as St Nicolas- a man with a long white beard, red robes, a red hat, and a golden staff- or Black Pete (who is obviously black, dressed in nice bright colours, with a big feather on his baret). Children under age, say, 8, tend to believe the man is real, and there is always a special "newsreport" when the great man arrives in the country.
If all this sounds terribly like Santa Claus, that's right. Dutch and Belgian immigrants in the USA took this feast with them, and Americans took it over- though they modified it a little, basically putting it on Christmas and fattening the poor saint up. "Santa Claus" is derived from "Sinterklaas", the loving nickname for St Nicolas.
Maybe thats true but we have Teh-Crazy-Lunatic-Monkey-President-of-Doom! We therefore are better! 
Why choose when you can have ALL the Holidays? Dutchness is the way to go. I swear I was Dutch in a previous life. 
probably nothing important. 
Before that age, the parents go completely bankrupt over buying tons of toys for the children, but after that age, all familly members draw a card with the name of the person they have to buy a present for.
mean... freakin' parents
