St. Nicholas is a typically Dutch and Belgium feast and celebrated on the fifth of December. St Nicholas is a bishop accompanied by his assistent Black Peter.
Saint Nicholas (Greek: Άγιος Νικόλαος , Agios Nikolaos, "victory of the people") (270 - 6 December 346) is the common name for Nicholas of Myra, a saint and Bishop of Myra (Demre, in Lycia, part of modern-day Turkey). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose English name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas. His reputation evolved among the faithful, as is common for early Christian saints. In 1087, his relics were furtively translated to Bari, in southern Italy; for this reason, he is also known as Nicholas of Bari.
In Belgium and the Netherlands, children are told that Zwarte Piet leaves gifts in the children’s shoes. Presents are said to be distributed by Saint Nicholas'help Zwarte Piet; who enters the house through the chimney, which also explains his black face and hands.
Here you see how our local shoeshop owner has already decorated his shop with a couple of symbols dealing with our holy man. Black Peter is a real tumbler. The big golden bishop's staff and the mitre are worn by St. Nicholas. The big carrot is a treat for his horse.
BTW St. Nicholas is not celebrated in stead of Christmas: we also celebrate Christmas on 25th and 26th of December. December is a very busy month for us, ending in New Year's Eve with a lot of fireworks.
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49 comments:
www.tout-pour-les-enfants.com/chorale/chansonspop/stnicolas.htm
C'est une chanson connue(autrefois ?)sur la légende de st Nicolas. Ma mère me la chantait.
J'ignorais que des objets associés à St Nicolas se vendaient.(crosse, par exemple)
La première photo est amusante.
Hi Wil. I'm so glad you explained everything, because the first picture made me worry why he was being hung upside down. :)
So interesting, our different customs and how they have evolved! Thanks, Reader Wil!
I do love your St Nicholas tradition, reader wil. A friend was once in the Netherlands with her friends on that day and absolutely loved the traditions. Happy St Nicholas Day to you and your family
Yeahhhhhhh......
Ik ben al volop bezig
cadeautjes kopen dat is leuk
maar die gedichtjes maken
oei oei oei ....
Ik moet er zoveel maken :-)
Duidelijke uitleg voor al uw blogvrienden !!
Mag ik het blogje overnemen
hahahahaha......
grapje :-)
Viert U ook nog sinterklaas met uw kinderen en kleinkinderen,
ik zet vanavond mijn schoen hihi..
Misschien dat zwarte Piet langskomt
Je weet maar nooit !
Groetjes van ons
:-)
It's true, it's amazing how different customs and traditions are. This weekend, we're having Tabaski over here. Which is like nothing a Swede has ever experienced.
Thanks for sharing!
It's also the same in Luxembourg.
I'm learning about this tradition!
Thanks a lot for this beautiful and informative post!
Léia
I've always liked the sound of the name Sinterklaas :)
As a child, my Christmas presents were brought by the Christkind, the Jesuschild (I imagined it as an invisible little angel) and on the 6th of December, I put a shoe outside the door for the Nikolaus. The Zwarte Piet is called Knecht Ruprecht where I grew up and children are told that if they are naughty, they will get no presents from the Nikolaus, but a birch rod from him.
Is there a traditional bringer of presents at Christmas in the Netherlands?
Sint-Maarten was nog maar net weg (11 november en ook gevierd in mijn geboortedorp als patroonheilige) of Sinterklaas stond al klaar. Vanaf 6 december mogen we dan weer de Kerstman verwachten...
This is a fun series of photos, Wil! Love that first one. Thank you for the information about St. Nicolas, it was very interesting.
Wat een leuke foto's en goed uitgelegd voor mensen die onze sint en piet niet kennen.
Yey! Sinterklas is bijna daar! Gelukkig dag Wil.
Wow - very cool. Thanks so much, I enjoyed your entry.
Oh, Wil, I love the very interesting history. Some of it I knew, but not all and I loved it! And your photos are so colorful and beautiful! Wonderful post!
Have a great week!
Sylvia
Your post brought a huge smile to my face. I love the story of St. Nicolas. Thanks!
Very interesting and wonderful tradition.
Leuke foto's. Ik hoop dat de Sinterklaas traditie stand houdt. Jammer dat de kerstman stukje bij beetje terrein wint.
These are very interesting.
Sydney - City and Suburbs
Interesting to hear of your traditions for St. Nicholas and Black Peter! I like that first shot of Black Peter. Perhaps he's practicing for a dive into a chimney?
In sommige streken in Vlaanderen komt de Sint niet, maar daar kennen ze dan wel Sint-Maarten. Zo zie je maar dat zelf in zo klein stukje van de wereld er toch nog verschillende tratities zijn
Very interesting read, I never knew so many customs before. Great shots shared too.
How nice to see your customs, Wil!
Aloha, Friend
Comfort Spiral
Thanks for the explanation - now I know what's behind that hanging upside down :-) Lovely shots!
It is interesting to read about different customs. I love the explaination of St Nicholas. Great photos.
When I was a child my Opa would send us a large tin filled with marzipan, dark chocolate letters, salty black licorice drops and much more besides in honour of SinterKlaus. We loved it.
My mother made us save it for Christmas day, in honour of the Australian tradition and whenever she opened the tin, her eyes filled with tears.
Facinating reading Wil. Many things explained that I only had foggy knowledge about.
Black Pater is new to me and would explain a lot about the chimney stories.
There are worse worlds than Christmas to live in. I knew about "Sinterklaas", but Zwarte Piet was new to me. Thank you for the info!
St. Nick is my favorite of the saints.....
I have wooden shoes and decorate December with all sorts of Dutch motif.
Happy ABC Wednesday.
Sherry
people either don't know, or forget the history of Santa. thanks.
St. Nicholas has always been a much more dark and romantic figure to me than Santa Claus, who has become very merry over the years and has all that help at the North Pole!
Sinterklaas wie kent hem niet?
Did you know that he can make the weather nice as well? Once when he was about to arrive the weather was absolutely awful. Then, as soon as he set foot on the quay, the rain and wind stopped and the sun came out. He did his parade with the black peters and the music bands and returned to his ship. As the ship sailed away, the sun went away and the rain and wind came out again!
I'm amazed at the different traditions at this time of year, which still retain the same essentials. That's the magic of Christmas.
So much fun and very informative. It's special to learn about customs and their origination. Great photos!
Good morning from Athens, Greece.
Remember well the celebrations of Nikolaus back home in Germany.
For now five years I'm living here in Athens, where it is not much known.
A wonderful entry of yours, which brought back nice memories, thank you.
Please have a nice Wednesday.
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http://tagein-tagaus-athen.blogspot.com/
oh I love sinterklaas We did it a couple of years at my kids highschool but our little group fell apart and left school
We think of Saint Nicholas as Santa Claus, or Saint Nick, and I know all the children are starting to get very excited about the Christmas season.
Word vandaag hopelijk een wat rustiger dag want wind hebben we de laatste dagen nu wel al meer dan genoeg gehad
very interesting
Thanks for sharing the different customs. I find them fascinating, especially the black one.
Great choice for the letter S.
This was so interesting, Wil. I loved learning about the origin of Santa Claus. I had no idea it came from the Dutch. This is so much fun. I guess if the gifts are to be left in shoes the presents cannot be too overly large. Oh dear!
sinderella. a silly Egyptian word starting with s so does Start Symbolizing the begining,
Solemnly Shying away from the System
that was full of Seminars that we went to with a Sentinal steam station wagon. Sentinals where made in Shrewsbury Shropshire. that has an abundance of Shire horses that the Sentinals replaced in carrying loads Some from factories Supplying Steel. just a Simple use of the word s
as is your Saint Nickolas
I see some folks write in a different language , so
sut mae hyn! mai na rhai poble un Siarad Cumraig mair Sais un Siared Sysneg rwyn shur fod na rhai Syn medry Siared yr iath o blebunag yrwyt ty yn dwad.
Hi Reader wil,
Ja ik zie dat je al helemaal in de Sinterklaas sfeer bent , alles ok hier,dank bvoor je blogbezoek\;0
I see that you are in Saint Nicolas mood already, everything is fine here, I like your Saint pic's. Thanks
Greetings |JoAnn Holland
I love to hear about different folklore! I did know the tale of St Nicholas, but not the detail you have given us! Love the Black Peter in the window! He looks as if he's just in the act of falling down a chimney!
yes Will you are right
oes Will wyt tyn iawn.
translated word for word not the way it would be spoken
Will! wyt tyn iawn.
Its the S. sais is english person saisneg is english language
not all welsh people can speak Welsh All the english speak english
there are welsh speakers from wherever you are from.
...................................
The most fluent Welsh is spoken in Patagonia.In the early 21st century, in Patagonia the Welsh-Argentine community numbers about 20000. From Chubut's own estimate, the number of Welsh speakers is about 1/4
De Sint is precies bijna in het land he, dacht eerst dat ik op een verkeerde blog was terecht gekomen ;-)
I always learn something here. This was fun.
«Louis» enjoyed this post and really likes the appropriate-to-the-occasion masthead photo, too.
Thanks for such an interesting post! I was somewhat familiar with Saint Nicholas, but now I realize how little I knew. I wasn't aware of his assistant Black Peter and that he actually delivered the gifts. Nor did I realize he lived so long ago; for some reason, I thought he was a more recent saint. Fascinating!
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