Sinterklaas was a real bissop, the bishop of Myra, in what today is Turkey , who lived from the year 270 until 335, he actualy died on the 6th of december. He was famous for giving presents to poor children and was sainted as Saint Nicholas in the year 550. He is the patron saint of sailors.
@@jwenting Slight detail: it's not blackface, just a blackened face from the coaldust (and chimney soot). Blackface is something completely different (like Louis Armstrong used to paint his face when singing songs like Hello Dolly).
The five most known Sinterklaas songs: *Zie ginds komt de stoomboot. *Sinterklaas kapoentje. *Daar wordt aan de deur geklopt. *O, kom er eens kijken. *De zak van Sinterklaas If you have Dutch friends you can celebrate Sinterklaas together. I like your vid's. So keep up the good work. And enjoy the holidays
Here’s a little Sinterklaas tradition you haven’t touched on about the giving of gifts: A lot of people go all-out on the wrapping, and it has to be as creative as possible and themed. The theme either refers to the gift, something the person receiving the gift is passionate about, gentle ribbing about a habit or typical trait they have, their job (for adults because adults often get gifts too during Pakjes-avond), or downright a joke to make everyone laugh. It has to be crafted together by the giver (not bought ready-made). Someone who is going to move houses might receive his or her gift in a box that has been made to look like a moving truck. Someone who is always on their mobile phone might get theirs in wrapping shaped like a mobile phone signal tower, a SIM card or like a mobile phone. An avid gardener might get a flower pot shaped gift (or in the shape of any piece of gardening equipment). This tradition isn’t very recent, my mother’s family already did this and she turned 80 this September. My mother’s family always had a lot of dogs. Grandma often complained about puppies leaving messes for her to clean up. If I remember correctly, my uncle crafted a very lifelike poo out of clay, painted it and varnished it with the help of Grandpa. Grandma’s gift (small piece of jewellery) was hidden inside a cavity underneath the poo. The fake poo went in a box that got wrapped following another theme that fit Grandma. My nephew prefers to receive money he can then spend later on something he wants (he’ll tell me then and thanks me again), usually computer related. I don’t like giving cash but find an enormous amount of pleasure in creatively wrapping that money. Fold bills like origami (tough to unfold, hence fun to see him struggling), stuff coins inside packing peanuts and mix them inside an enormous box with other packing peanuts which causes him to spend a good fifteen minutes collecting all the hidden cash, stuffing bills inside paper straws and returning those to their original wrapping (of course not every straw contains cash), making him a money tree with coin ‘fruit’ hanging off the branches, … it’s always good for a laugh and my nephew loves it, because apparently he tells his parents, sister and friends he can’t wait to see what crazy wrapping idea comes next. And don’t worry: the rest of the family gets crazily wrapped gifts too.
Traditionally the petes crawl down the chimney. But that story, even for kids, became harder and harder to explain with central heating in all the houses. On Sinterklaasavond, the presents are indeed put into a large bag or sack. Sometimes the bag is put besides the front door, with dad sneaking out the back door, putting it before the front door, knocking or ringing, and running back. But stories like "oh yes, i nearly forgot, someone put a big dirty bag before the door, I put it in the shack behind the house, you dont't mind, do you?" were also used. Neighbours often assisted with banging on the door. Nice that you touched upon Sinterklaas being a little bit senile. I greatly dislike the RTL image of black pete, with the petes being stupid. In my childhood time, the Pieten often outsmarted Sinterklaas, so I never experienced that as discrimination. Sinterklaas presents in the family should be accompanied by (long) poem, in which the receives is teased in a friendly way with his faults over the pas year.
Grown ups celebrate Sinterklaas also: important tradition is that you write a poem to the person you give a gift. The poems are poking fun at each others habits or experiences of that year. The gifts are mostly not that expensive and sometimes wrapped up to look like something entirely different "een surprise" with the present inside.
Our family would sit in the living room singing Sinterklaas songs, curtains closed. Then the neighbours would bang the kitchen windows and door, open it slightly, throw some candy into the living room and run off before we could see them, leaving behind a big basket of presents.
So Dutch holidays also known in the US: So the typical 'Dutch secular way' for these holidays: Eastern - National holiday, preceded by 'Good Friday'. While 'Good Friday' is not a national holiday, it is usually a day that is taken off so you can extend your Easter weekend, the monday following it is a national holiday meaning you get the day off from work. Eastern comes from the Germanic (people that largely influenced this part of Europe where Germany was named after) feast of Ostara, a fertility goddess, that was celebrated at this time because the chickens would now start to lay eggs again (we now have bred chickens that breed all year round, but back in the day people longed for the chickens to lay eggs again). Ostara liked both chickens, rabbits and hares for there fertility properties. We start at breakfast usually with a yellow tablecloth adorned with yellow chicklits and or hares (the bunny being a hare). Eggs are served predominantly abd are or already painted or painted at the the table or later in the day. Before breakfast or sometimes after there is a egg hunt where real or chocolate eggs have been hidden and now must be found. This is usually left to the children but adults join in also. The rest of the weekend is usually spend with family making use of the free monday following it. There is also a race event this weekend. Pentacost This is usually also is a weekend spend with (extended) family and a national holiday also extanded by a 2nd pentacost day on the monday, which you also take off from work, mostly mandatory. There is also an old pop music festival called PinkPop (as Pentacost is 'Pinksteren') in Dutch, that is very popular as an alternative to spend this weekend. Ascension It always on Thursday and also a day off in the Netherlands so usually employees also take the Friday off creating yet another streak of off days. Again often used to do things with friends and family. Sinterklaas This feast is what has become mutated into Christmas in other countries. Sinterklaas is the collogial? name for St. Nicolaas (Saint Nicolas, does that ring a bell yet...?), an old Saint that was good to poor people. By legend he visited a house where three daughters lived that could not get married because they could not pay the dowry. He trew in 3 golden coins. There are multiple saints called Nicolas and none of them ever visited Spain, he lived in Myra in what now is Turkey. Nevertheless Sinterklaas the legend comes from Spain where he lives in a castle with his paid servant Black Pete. The garments that Black Pete wares are clothes of a Spanish nobleman, not those worn by slaves. Later they became a large group of servants, the Black Petes. This part of the story has given rise to much controversy because of that his sevant might have been a slave and because the Black Pete's are usually white people with black painted faces. The story now is that his face is black from the sooth, black pete also enters by the chimney and the people who play him are not fully painted black but have black smudges. Black Pete carries a bag of candy and 'pepernoten' (gingerbread nuts). These where traditionally trown at the children (referring back to the legend of the golden coins) but because of practicality and hygiene are now often handed out or in Corona time dispatched in plastic bags. On December 5th the family sits at the diner table. The curtains are closed which is very unusual in the Netherlands and very impractical for the children who now can not see anyone approaching the front door. Then there is a loud knock at the door, but when it is opened no one is there. There is however a large sack of gifts. Before this highlight a special news bulletin will follow the arrival and adventures of Sinterklaas in the previous month and periodically small gifts are left in the shoes of children. Christmas As said Christmas mutated from Sinterklaas, the Jul (Big Hunt by the Northern Gods), the feast of light and the eding of winter (a very hard and sometimes deadly time in the olden days). Saint Nicholas a merger of Sinterklaas, Wotan the head of the Scandinavian or Germanic Gods, and some other pixie lore and myths. It was Christened Christmas to subdue the pagan beliefs over time and to celebrate to birth of Christ. Although the Catholic church and the rest of the world do not know when Chist was born, it is unlikely that it was during winter time because all of the cattle and the shepards where out in the fields and sleeping there. It origins still shine through though. Santa Claus is called Saint Nick, refering to Sint Nicolaas aka Sinterklaas. The evergreen tree represented fertility and a residence to winter, the lights in it the return of the light and there summer. 'May your Jul times, be gay and merry' or something I don't remember the lyrics exactly refers to the Jul, etcetera. Christmas is celebrated like in the US, doubling our Christmas time 😊. Although we often pick either Christmas or Sinterklaas to do the presents. And we never make Turkey, that's your tradition.
Back when I was a kid Sinterklaas was for kids with all the presents (we had those toy magazines too around that time) And when you got older it moved to Christmas with family gifting each other presents, but that one was never about Santa Claus.
When I was a child and believed that Sinterklaas was real, it was all about putting your shoe twice a weak under the radiator (we had no chimney). Then on the 5th of december I was nervous all day, because in the evening Sinterklaas would bring the presents. We celebrated this evening with our family. Christmas was all about “celebrating” the birth of Jesus, with a christmas tree and all the little statues of the three kings, mother Mary, Joseph and Jesus in a crib, surrounded by sheep, and the donkey. The donkey stood next to Jesus, because his breath would keep Jesus warm. On the 25th of december we had a big diner with the whole family (after going to church in the morning) and after diner we drink wine and beer. It was a wonderful time and I still have great memories of that. I work with elderly people and christmas to them is still putting on their best clothes and have a extensive breakfast and diner with their family. For the elderly who don’t have family to go to, they get a special diner, made by cooks. This is also my favourite time to work, because of the special atmosphere.
Sinterklaas in Belgium is a bit different. Here he comes the night from 5 on 6 december. So you find your present on the 6th in the morning. Here is no pakjesavond. The name off his horse here is 'Goedweervandaag' (Good wether today). The bad kids; Piet has a big bag with him, with the toys and the sweets. When you were a bad kid, they said that Piet puts you in this empty bag to take you with them to Spain. Of couse this was only a way to have only good children.
So mister Jones, you've got just a miserable thousand LED's to lighten up your Christmas tree? I, as in me and my family, got a million... Nana nana naaa-nah!
- I believe Sint Nicholas never actually was in Spain ever. Bishop of Myra (now in Turkey) and buried in Italy. But for the Dutch, Spain was a big rival (80 years of war, etc) so easily used as the villain country where you did not want to go to. - Putting your shoe at the chimney is never a daily thing, maybe twice a week max. The shoe was used also like a mailbox, put your wishlist in your shoe with a carrot for the horse. Piet would take both and leave some candy, pepernoten and sometimes a small gift. - The gifting traditions very per Dutch household. In my family there was a lot of effort in making the surprises, meaning disguising the presents in something else. For example, my brother one year kept asking for a dog, his present was disguised as a dog from paper, etc. Because of this effort, my parents wanted to show them off longer than just a few hours on December 5th. So the story was that the Pieten would bring some presents every few days and put the in our cupboard with glass doors. Very exciting for us children, every morning running downstairs to see if something new was there and to see if we could guess for who the present would be. No name tags until the day of the celebrations. Oh, and there was a Sinterklaas poem for each person. - The threat of Spain did not work in our family. 😂 We had a holiday home there so us children knew it was a nice place. The threat for us was not getting any presents.
Sinterklaas was a catholic event. Most protestants did not celebrate it. Somewhere around middle november sint came to the town where you live and was greeted by the mayor of the town. Not so in the bible belt, there were no sinterklaas festivities. There were also no big festivities on Christmas because for both protestants and catholics this was a holy day, to remember Christ birth.
Sinterklaas is based on history (from Myra, Turkey). Santa Claus is create by Coca Cola (I got that good stuff that you want Let me be your pusher, pusher, pusher, ey I got that good stuff that you want Let me be your pusher, pusher, pusher, ey).
The story of how Sinterklaas delivers the presents is the story of "Pakjesavond". On that night, Sinterklaas goes across the rooftops with his horse and his pieten to deliver the gifts to all the children who have been good. The pieten would go down the chimneys, delivering the gifts at the fireplace for the children to wake up to the next morning. But if you were bad, the pieten would take you along with them to Spain in their bags (the same bags as for the candies and the gifts). That's also the explanation given for why all the pieten are black: because of all the soot from the chimneys. It's a pretty gruesome story of hierarchy and kidnapping, to be honest...
St Nicolaas is for kids, very old tradition, he's Woden/Odin the god of Wednesday in roman disguise. He has the weird hat, the white stallion, the stick , just like Gandal basically, his horse can ride over roofs, like Sleipnir the horse of Woden could.
Woden has raves as helpers, St Nicolaas has his freed African slave, he freed from the Moroccans, who now out of gratitude helps him... Now a days, the freed slave changed skin colour , I guess it was a bit too confronting.
When I came to Holland in the early 70’s Christmas wasn’t so visible in the way of lights and advertising. It definitely was a time that I would really get home sick. Sinter Clause, however, was the big thing and quite honestly I found it was very impressive because families would make funny presents with poems for each other instead of expensive gifts. It was very family oriented. It was not great big, expensive gifts but handmade gifts and special poems made up for each gift. I could really appreciate this. Unfortunately over the years it has changed here more towards the American way. Marketing, marketing, marketing, Buy, Buy, Buy. The bigger the better. So sad😢 Sinter Cause is disintegrating 😢 Now a days they also show those sweet, innocent Christmas movies every night during the Christmas season. Also, everyone is lighting up their homes, mostly with white lights. The Christmas markets are everywhere from September! Although, I have warm memories of Christmas in America, I know now that what it is all about is marketing and spending lots and lots of money.
I'm 39yo and I remember those big toy catalogues in the 80s and 90s. I rarely wanted anything from them (except for coloring pencils), which was a good thing since our family wasn't well off. When I became a teen we started doing the "surprises" (handmade gifts with poems). I'm really glad that tradition has survived. People are still doing it today. There's usually a spending limit (15~20eu) so things stay fun and affordable. I wouldn't be surprised if people were writing their poems by using chat GPT these days 😂 I don't want the netherlands to completely go the american way regarding christmas. Some houses in the US are so decked out it hurts the eyes. I prefer the classic christmas aesthetic (warm toned lights, christmas trees, real wreaths, holly, pine cones, traditional baubles, etc). I haven't noticed a sharp increase in consumerism around dutch christmas, but I guess I should ask my friends who have kids about what they do regarding christmas. If I remember correctly most families have a rule that they either have presents during sinterklaas or christmas, not both. The large majority seem to opt for presents for sinterklaas, and then maybe a small gift (socks, some candy, etc) for christmas. But a lot of people seem completely fine without any gifts during christmas, it's mostly a family oriented celebration. If the decorations are up and I can make mulled wine and watch tv with my parents and my brother then it'll be complete for me. Bonus points for old christmas music.
Hi Did you know that Santa Claus is the American answer to our Sinterklaas. Immigrants took it to the USA and Coca Cola got away with it. Sinterklaas comes mid November with a huge boat (filled with packages) from Spain to Holland. Born in Turkey. It’s mainly a children’s event.
When I was young the Pieten had a sac and a roe.Witch is a bundel of branches.If we were not listening or did bad things,they could take us to Spain with them..And the roe to beat,so it was horrible for children...
@@koevoetje When I was a kid I thought the whisk (which you call roe) was the bishop's staff. So I made sure to be in the nice list of the big book of Sinterklaas. 😬
Santa Claus derived from Sinterklaas. It was brought to the USA when the Dutch established New Amsterdam. The modern Dutch name sounds different but if you the name spoken in the southeast dialects of the Netherlands (and probably in old Dutch) it sounds quite similar; sènterkloas. I have happy memories of Sinterklaas. Putting your shoe near the chimney filled with a carrot for the horse and the next morning you would find something like a chocolate letter or something like that. The neighbors scared us a little, a few days before Sinterklaas, by bouncing on the back door and then throw some pepernoten in the kitchen. My parents would do the same for their children. On the day itself you got your presents with rhymes. The children had to make a present for the parents also with Sinterklaas rhymes. The punishment for bad behavior - being put in a bag and taken back to Spain - was always brought in such a way that you knew you didn’t have to take that threat very seriously. We never had presents at Christmas. Then we had two days of eating delicious foods. The house decorated and a Christmas tree. When I was in primary school, on one evening we went to church for a special Christmas mass.
Vier Sinterklaas dit jaar als volwassene, trek lootjes, maak een surprise en gedicht. Zo benieuwd hoe jullie dat ervaren. Complimenten voor jullie video's.
Hello Eric and Tammy, thanks again for a very nice video! There is a lot to say about Sinterklaas and Christmas in the Netherlands. As for Sinterklaas: for small children (approximately under 7) it is especially an exciting time with presents and sweets, but once you get past that age it is often a family event with Sinterklaas poems where you can make fun of someone or give them lots of compliments, and then you can give (and get) fake gifts and real gifts. Christmas is much more of a family event. First Christmas day a visit to the parents and second to the in-laws (vice versa). A special Christmas dinner is part of it. It's always a puzzle to figure out what the planning looks like with the family, and since the Dutch love planning, that's difficult 😥. What I think is important is that it does not become too commercial an event and there it probably differs enormously from the USA.
Hey guys, well to start more or less where you guys started: Our Fall/Winter season basically starts I'd say at 11 November Sint Maarten. This is our non horror related, non scary, non Trick or Treat children's walk from door to door and sing Sint Maarten songs to get candy from the people from the homes they rang the font door bell from. Then a week later Sint Nicolaas arrives with his steam boat from Spain with all of the presents for all the well behaved children. As of that moment children in general are allowed to put their shoe (with or without a carrot) at night at the fireplace or any or any other place which is pointed out and sing to Sint Nicolaas. He will not bring gifts until the 5th of December, but he will bring little candy's and Piet will go down the chimney to put the candy in their shoes to build up the tension for the evening of the 5th of December. It really is all about the evening 5th of December. If you've not been good Piet will hunt you down and slap you with his roe (his chimney sweep made out of small tree branches) you will end up in the Sack of Sint Nicolas (Sinterklaas) different spelling; same dude, and since the cargo room of the ship will be empty of presents, the cargo room can be filled with nasty kids to ship them to Spain and to work in the Toy factory to teach them a lesson. This is the dutch Sint Nicolaas version. Sint Nicolaas however is celebrated all over Europe for over 1000 years and the stories can and will locally be slightly different. This also goes for the character which accompanies Sint Nicolaas. In Germany and Austria and other countries there are no Piet characters but they have Krampus as the companion of Sint Nicolaas. Go look him up (Krampus) even here at UA-cam and see the difference between our Piet and Krampus, hahaha. Our Piet is so sweet... Any way as you may have established by now; our Sint Nicolaas celebrations have got nothing, I mean really nothing to do with X-mas at all. To us two absolute different and non related holidays. In fact Sint Nicolaas is celebrated for over 1000 Years and the Christmas-man as we call him (you guys call him Santa Claus) was based up on 2 things really: A European Scandinavian myth of a person (looks from a distance a bit like your Santa Claus) riding the clouds on a Sleigh pulled by Rain-deers and of course our Sinter Klaas. If you look it up you will find out that Santa Claus is made up by the Coca Cola company somewhere in the 1930's. So to you guys it may look like this Santa Claus has been around forever...but I think it is safe to say that he has been around for what? Like 95 years while Sint Nicolas has bee around for over 1000 years.. just saying... Your American Santa Claus was not really introduced here in Europe I'd say since the 1980's and he is still (to us Europeans) the sad made up bad replica of Sinter Klaas and he comes at the wrong period of time... X-mas to us was a religious celebrating of the birth of JC and so we did have a christmas tree, but underneath there was a little farmer stall containing the all of the main characters from the religious book. So not just the fresh born JC, but also his mom M and 3 random eastern dudes carrying knowledge and gifts. And we were all dressed up nicely (we looked our best in our nicest clothes: The men all in suit and the women all in their best dresses) and the music played religious songs about JC and we burned candles and we had conversations in a family atmosphere and later we ate a very nicely cooked dish (usually very complicated like deer-back and so) The last thing that would come up in our mind were gifts...this was a moment of reflection and not of greed. So I hope you guys will understand that the Over-The-Top 5000 gifts per kid from a bad replica of Sinter Klaas at the wrong period of time was quite a confusing and disturbing and wrong (it felt that way at least) over the top initiative from the USA, of course the USA, since everything that came from the USA was over the top. Nothing was normal, everything had to be in USA Over-compensation-mode. We often asked ourselves what on earth was wrong with those over the top Americans and their over the top USA products and over the top celebrations... why can it not be simply modest; small, worthwhile, durable... It after all are the little things in life that are most valuable, especially while most of these little things are for free, and yet priceless to get; like love, affection, a friend, family you name it... None of these things can be bought and so no matter how big and over the top you make a religious fest into a consumer driven gift machine... love is for free and cannot be replaced by what ever gift you can come up with.
Thank you for the explanation. I love learning customs and traditions of other countries. I’m from the Czech Rep. and much like Austria we also have St. Nicholas who comes on the 5th of Dec, accompanied by an angel and a devil (like Krampus), the good and the bad. Children sing a song or recite a poem to St. Nicholaus and he asks them if they’ve been good and if the parents confirm, they will get small gifts. Well, it used to be some chocolates, fruits and nuts, maybe a small toy, because this is not the main gift-receiving day, that´s on Dec 24. But nowadays parents spoil the children with big expensive gifts and lots of them even on St. Nicholas Eve that I wonder what the kids get later on Christmas Eve when this is just the start (our gifts are brought by baby Jesus on Christmas Eve after a big family dinner). And of course if the children have been bad they only get coal or potatoes. And if they’ve been really bad the devil will put them in the sack and take them to Hell. But St . Nicholas has never let that happen yet 😉
Sint Maarten isn't really celebrated in the south of the Netherlands. In Brabant we have the American halloween, the start of Carnaval on 11-11, Sinterklaas and Xmas.
Toen mijn kinderen klein waren zette ze hun schoen altijd voor het raam, ze geloofden dat hij door de schoorsteen kwam: maar ze vroegen nooit waar de opening van de schoorsteen was🤣🤣🤣🤣. En op sinterklaasavond bonsde de buurman op de deur en legde de zak met cadeaus neer en rende dan hard weg .😛😛
When you were bad or naughty you were sand back to Spain the bag (=zak) that carried the gifts at first. Millions of Dutch children grew up with this threatening aspect of Sinterklaas and I have never met a person who was traumatized because of it. Still these days children are considered to be too sensitive to deal with this ‘threat’ so the story of children being send back is hardly used anymore.
My dad is now 75 years old and to this day does not like Sinterklaas because when he was young his family put up this charade with a uncle dressed up as sinterklaas who put his father in the sack. The poor boy cried his eyes out that night. At the time his family wasn't the only one doing these kind of things, but by the time that I was young it really wan't a thing anymore.
In the past, children were also beaten by teachers at school. It's good that we have changed such things over time to more civilized forms. The same goes for old traditions like Sinterklaas, because believe me, children from America or other countries with a much more cheerful and milder figure like Santa Claus are really not less happy than Dutch children.
Every year they make an entire story and production to entertain the kids and keep things exciting - boat has issues, somebody is missing, wrong gifts were loaded, great book was misplaced, etc…and every year all ends up being fine in the nick of time. It’s pretty neat actually if you think about… it’s a cool tradition but for foreigners who didn’t really grow up with it t may seem a bit weird in some areas - there’s no bad intent behind it all…
I've never been so fortunate to get a free trip to Spain, but it used to be part of the Sinterklaas time. I think Christmas has changed a bit over the years, probably due to influence from the US. It used to be a pure family thing. First Christmas day was staying at home with the family and spending the time together. Usually some board games were being played, and a lot of talking about the past year and what happened to you and people around you. These days the gift thing seems to have shifted a bit more from Sinterklaas to Christmas, especially in families without any young children. Second Christmas day was more of visiting family (especially parents and grandparents). Christmas diner was often used to invite people like single aunts and uncles, to come over and spend the time together. At least these are my experiences. Could be totally different for other families. I think you've picked up a lot over the last 3 holiday seasons.
In our house, my kids can put out there shoe every day when Sinterklaas is in the country. They only get a present 2 times a week though. And I enjoy making the house look like we've had nightly visitors. Sometimes the Pete's have played some board games and left them lying around. They may have lefted dirty footprints around, eaten half of the carrot that was in the shoe. Or they have only put poems in the shoes, that will lead the kids to hidden presents. On Sinterklaas evening, a neighbour bounces on our door and leaves the sack with presents. Taking the kids back to spain is no longer a threat in most households. Pete's have also changed a lot in recent years, they finally found some good soap to wash their faces.
I love sinterklaas,I remember on the 5 december singing in front of the kachel,we were living obove our grandmother of 80 years old,we singing and than boem boem boem,omg there he was,we open the door and so manny pressents,how little did we know it was our grandmother whit her broom bumping on the sealing ,so no zwarte piet we found out years later stil love it.and I love the songs now playing in the stores
We had a Spainish neighbour who put the jute sack with presents in front of our door, hit the front door and window hard and the he ran home, two doors further. We ran to the door, our parents closed the curtains already a little before, and we went outside to see if we could see a Piet or de Si t somewhere on a roof. The good old 70's. Sinterklaas came to school, some Pieten stormed in, they threw candy all over the classroom floor and we stormed to them. The he took his big book and called the kids one by one to him. I did not end up in Spain. 😊
When I was in school Sinterklaas and a few Pieten visited my class. I'm not sure what was more terrifying: sitting on Sinterklaas' lap or the threat of being hit with "de roe", a bundle of twigs held by Zwarte Piet and reportedly used to discipline bad children. The big book in which Sinterklaas had accurate notes of all children's acts of naughtiness was also terrible. I've never seen 'roe' or 'zak' being used in anger.
The figure of Santa Claus is a transformation of Sinterklaas (Sint Nicolaas). Christmas used to be more of a religious event and Sinterklaas the event where the children got their gifts. In the Big Book of Sinterklaas was written down how you had behaved the year round. Nowadays, Christmas is becoming the gift event, mostly after the children got too big for the story of Sinterklaas. In my home I won't put up the Christmas tree before the 6th of December. I wait until Sinterklaas has left the country.
Santa is derived from Sinterklaas which was brought and celebrated by the Dutch after their arrival in the US. The British colonies within the US mixed it with their tradition of Father Christmas. Out of that mix, since 1773, we now have and know Santa Claus as the bringer of gifts. With that out of the way, let's look at Sinterklaas. It isn't solely Dutch as some believe, it is actually quite wide spread within Western Europe, and in Germany and Austria, we find the more original form of Sinterklaas accompanied by Krampus and or the Perchten. It is neither solely Dutch nor just a children's celebration either, in essence, it is about fertility and transformation and is rooted in our pre-Christian pagan religion. That religion is Yggdrasil, the Norse/Germanic tree of life. Though the ecclesiastical power has tried to destroy all pagan traditions, it has survived in remote areas where the ecclesiastical power was limited or non existent. A bit of symbolism. Odin is often displayed as a one-eyed god with a spear, two black ravens (Huginn, thought and Muninn, memory) and two wolves (Geri, eagerness and Freki, miserliness). The ravens fly across the nine worlds, and when they return, they tell Odin the news of the worlds. In folklore tradition, the helpers of Sinterklaas find out who is good and bad, and thus Sinterklaas of course, has his big book with all the information on who was bad and who has been good. The tree of life consists of the upper world (aces), the middle world (garden of the living), and the underworld (seeds or those not yet reborn or awakened) Fruma jiuleis is old Gothic Germanic language that points to the time before Yule. During this period, the gates of the upper world and underworld open up to the middle world, and gods from the upper world and underworld come to the middle world to prepare for the wild hunt. The wild hunt is aimed at Fenrir (greed), which devours the sun. In November, Sinterklaas comes to visit with his helpers, who are black or at least painted very dark. Nothing to do with racism or the human race, the color black is symbolic for mystical, latent, or, to make it poetic, potential in the seed. The chimney is the symbolic gateway to the upper world, and the water well is the symbolic gateway to the underworld. The bag or basket is symbolic for a womb, i think you will start to see that the true meaning of it all is transformation, how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. :) It is very bluntly written because i can't write a whole page or book here. The candy in the baskets. You'll find some similar symbolism in Germanic tales such as Hans en Grietje, after they defeat the witch (false self) - which they push into the oven and thus burn- they find pearls and gold, which is symbolic for insight, lessons of the soul, and purity of the soul. Because the moon was leading in those ancient times with periods of one and a half moons from new to full or from full to new, there is no date for Yule. A cyle of 8 moon periods with 12 nights complete the sun's year, those 12 nights were the period between the cycles and dedicated to Holda, goddess of the underworld. Of course, we now know them as the Twelve Days of Christmas. Hopefully i haven't made to many writting errors. :)
Belgium here. We also have Sinterklaas, but with very minor traditions. Our Sinterklaas has one Pete, rather than multiple. And our Sinterklaas gives us presents at 6 December, rather than the 5 December. But I digress. You can compare Christmas here with Thanksgiving in the USA, when talking about the focus on gift giving and family. In my family when I was a kid, Sinterklaas was the children's feast, with lots of toys, while at Christmas small non-toy gifts were given, like books or a sweater. I don't know how much it's still the case since 30 years ago, but at least back then, in November or end October, toy stores printed their catalogue as an advertisement folder, so parents could give this folder to their kids and ask them "What do you want Sinterklaas to bring you this year?"-with lots of time left to do the shopping for their kids for the morning of the 6th December. Other countries have their own variants. If you're not shocked enough from the tradition of black Pete, look at southern Germany for example. Look up Krampus; you might think it's Halloween rather than Christmas/Sinterklaas!
About Santa's drinking problem: Growing up in the UK, everybody left a glass of sherry on the coffee table for Santa. (Together with a mince pie and a carrot for the reindeer.) That's a lot of sherry before he even hits Ireland or the US. I'm not sure he should have been in charge of a sleigh after the first two houses. (And who knows what he was knocking back in Germany, or even further east!)
BTW i might have overlooked comments about it but for our family there was a tree rule. The day after Sinter Klaas, the Christmas tree came, and the tree vanished after the 6th of January. And still to this day this is the case for me. I was told this is a catholic thing. Oh and Christmasdinner is just a tiny bit more expensive/bigger than any other dinner. Instead of buying 3full shoppingcarts at AH and Dirk for just 2 day's. 😊😂
Nice video guyz. Nothing much to add to the other comments. Your questions (and answers) here, cover the subject and explain it quite clearly for all people that wonder about it.
Better be prepared for St Maarten first...look it up in wikipedia :) November 11, a lot of small kids will ring your door bell if you leave the lights on near the front door.
"You're going in the bag!" Was a very effective threat for a month or two before december. And the Christmassy Santa tradition is definately copied from SInterklaas. (remember the tradition was there before coca-cola, and it's because your dutch ancestors) And of course Sinterklaas AND Christmas themselves are some Catholic perversion of a Germanic tradition.
Tammy is spot on with sinterklaas and Christmas! Well done Tammy. The thing nowadays though there are a lot of families who's children have grown up and have switched from sinterklaas gifts to Christmas gifts. For me personally, that is the part i don't like as for me Christmas has everything to do with the birth of crist and nothing to do with gifts! But that is my personal opinion. People tend to forget what xmas is all about because of all these gifts Haha de zak van sinterklaas is just a fun thing. I experienced it as a thing that never happened of course but i have always seen it as a sort of fantasy. It greatly depends on how the parents bring it to their kids! I was never worried about it. Great video i love to see the fun you 2 have. It's so funny...and i admire your knowledge about the Dutch culture. Both of you sound as real Dutchies. So nice to have watched you over the last 2 years. Well done you two❤.
The Sinterklaas Journaal (news) Started in 2000, a year before that a program called 'De Club van Sinterklaas' air on a commercial station. It started a new trend where you'd see Petes and Sinterklaas on a daily basis in all kinds of adventures. Before that we hardly saw the Sint and his Petes in anything. We would not see them in the days leading up to the arrival. Maybe all you'd see was an image of his boat in a promo for a few seconds a few days before the arrival somewhere around the TV-programmes Sesame Street, Jeugdjournaal and Klokhuis (80s & 90s). And then: BAM, he was here on Saturday. But you still would not see him much. Sinterklaas and/or Petes would make surprise appearances on maybe Sesame Street, a quiz, perhaps a talkshow, maybe a tv-movie. So they were always really mysterious characters. Kids that grew up after 2000 have been been used to seeing them all the time, every day from the moment they got home from school.
22:22 🤣Even worse, Sinetreklaas needed more helpers, so a teacher from Amsterdam came up with the idea in 1890, somewhere, of Black Petes with a rod (dried branches) to keep the children in line and supposedly would hit them when they were naughty, and if they were too naughty they indeed had to go in the bag to Spain.
Yes totally true. I remember being scared when i was a little girl that i would be hit and taken to spain in the bag that sinterklaas used to give sweet kids presents.
The traditions of Sinterklaas and Christmas blended by the people on journeys over seas into Santa Clause. Just to keep that tradition alive. They both are called Saint Nicholas, have their helpers and move at lightspeed to deliver gifts. Anyway the first signs of the holiday season are the Sinterklaas treats, followed by the toystore wishbooks (toy catalogues?) Wich my dad used to call "De Gekmakertjes" (the crazymakers)
Did you know that at offices and working places often Sinterklaas is celebrated for the children of the employees? It’s before his b-dat and in daytime with a visit by Sinterklaas, his big book with everything he knows about the kids, sweets, presents, singing. etc.
“To the memory of St. Nicholas. May the virtuous habits and simple manners of our Dutch ancestors be not lost in the luxuries and refinements of the present times” Dr David Hosack, New York Historical Banquet 1809. Sadly it was in vain, it currently is just that in the US. Because the Americans saw a nice Dutch tradition, embraced it, improved it and then commercialized it. Washington Irving featured Saint Nicholas prominently in this satirical history of the New Amsterdam Dutch-American ethnic identity. Altering the saint’s appearance from a tall, somber, commanding European image, Irving reinvented Saint Nicholas as a short, stout, merry, pipe-smoking Dutchman dressed in traditional colonial attire. In 1871 Thomas Nast, a German-born New Yorker and Harpers Weekly cartoonist created the ancestor of the current Coca Cola Santa Claus to the image of Irvings creation and his friend Moore’s description of the traditions, which were based on a Dutch neighbor and the Knickerbocker’s history of New York. The name evolved from Saint Nicholas to Sinterklaas (to difficult for Americans to pronounce), to Saint Claas (1828) and finally Santa Claus. Source: New York Public Library.
Sinterklaas was a catholic bishop, so not married. Santaclaus came to the USA by Dutch immigrants in the 17th century. Coca Cola changed the story in the 1930 in the present American caricature of the original true story of Nicolas of Myra.
The getting put in the sack back to Spain is quite recent thing, originally you would get punished with "Roe" (a bundle of long twigs) if you were naughty. The large sack at the front was how my family did it until all of the chidren were old enough, when the adults tell it that's all fake. From then on, my family switched to the surprise version, you would still have a sack but through a lottery, you buy a present (under an agreed value) for the person that you got and often a poem/rhyme with it. (Often, these are very light-hearted, poking fun or giving some compliments) For the presents before the 5th of December, you can technically put your shoe at the hearth/heater everyday. However, from my experience, that doesn't mean that you would get presents every day, sometimes it's just some peper/kruidnoten. And yeah, the origin story of Sinterklaas/Saint Nicolas is that he came from Turkey, Mira specifically and headed up to Europe. Generally, he is considered the Saint of a lot of things like normal, (sailors, prostitues and more), but his main domain was marriage. If you wanted to marry, but you didn't have the money, then the story goes that he would throw you the gold for the marriage. (I believe this is where all the throwing of the candy and peper/kruidnoten comes from.) Technically speaking, Saint Nicolas isn't exactly a Dutch thing, next to the carribean and Belgium also celebrate it. (Although, in Belgium he is even more stately presented, due to Belgium being almost completely catholic.) These countries also do have the Pete thing. However, Germany (I think Austria and Switserland partly as well) have also Saint Nicolas, but instead of mulitple petes, it's Krampus next to him. More of a demon companion that would ring a bell if you have been naughty.
De KERSTMAN does those things here also in Dec. Kerstmis. The Kerstman also is an older tradition than American. All European countries got some little twists but in the core have the same Christian fantasm. Which root in deeper older thing than Christian lores and traditions, history.
Some fun extra "facts" (no sinterklaas experience is the same): - most often parents allow their children to set their shoes once every 2-3-4-5 days or so, it differs. Why? Well not to spoil the kids or as parents often call it "not to overwork Sinterklaas" like you said, but also well; usually they get 1 or 2 small toys and some candy. It's difficult to find 30+ different kinds of toys as well, parents just see what they can get and divide it over some sessions of "shoe setting", this usually is the bottleneck for how often they can set their shoes. - besides from singing, it is also recommended to leave a snack for the horse. A small bowl of milk or water, some carrots perhaps. And ofcourse it's magic for the kids when they see it's gone in the morning :D - The horse sometimes get's a new name. Ozosnel (oh so quickly) is the new horse since 2019, when the old one called Amerigo retired. Not even sure what's real and what's fantasy, but I'm assuming it's just another added story to the myth. - Our Southern neighbours in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium (Vlaanderen) call the horse "Slechtweervandaag" which means "Bad weather today", it got it's name from a mishap/confusion in a conversation XD (typical Flemish/Dutch humor aimed for kids) - Sinterklaas indeed does arrive by steamboat coming from Madrid! But Madrid doesn't have any canals/lakes/seas to which it is connected on which boats can travel! Now that is magical! - Since a couple of years there is this "Sinterklaasjournaal" (Sinterklaas news), where the entire cast of Pieten are played by famous Dutch people. Children don't notice, Adults love to spot who's who. Has become a great tradition. The show is connected to the official national TV-broadcast of Sinterklaas arriving in the Netherlands. - Since the Sinterklaasjournaal exists; every year the writers of the show come up with this major disaster. The boat sank. They left all the presents in Spain. The list of who gets what is lost. The storage room for the presents in NL gets flooded etc etc. Slightly scaring kids with the idea they might not get anything is kind of part of it. Although in recent years there have been some parents who were concerned for the mental health of their kids (lol). - The big day / 5th december / all the big presents... well I'll describe 2 options; the way it goes with kids, or just adults. With kids it most often is done on the actual 5th of december but some parents might delay for the weekend because of circumstances, but generally the younger the kids are the more likely it's done on the 5th. Sometimes other family members and their children will join. Often one of the elders will go outside with a huge jute bag filled with gifts, leave it on the porch and bang the door like crazy and run off, the parents then say "who could that be?!?!" kids get excited etc you get the gig. The kids usually don't notice who's missing, or the person might already came back through the back or something. 80% of the gifts are for the kids, the parents will often buy some smaller ones for eachother or themselves. The parents might write a couple of poems (usually with jokes and naughty puns or little jabs in them). Without kids..... the entire charade gets easier, more comedy enters; people can make surprise-gifts for eachother which can be anything from an elaborate self-made box which resembles something the receiving party likes, or it can be a box filled with slime and a present in the middle, or any other joke or puzzle to get to your gift. Often the poems return. There is a 3rd more casual way of doing it, often done with class mates or collegues from work: everybody buys 1-2-3 small gifts and then they play a game with a dice where for example throwing a 1 = pick a gift, 2= unwrap a gift you have, 3 = pass gift to the left, 4 = pass to the right etc etc, and the game stops when the pile of gifts is empty. - Christmas! Some families do celebrate it with gifts, a lot don't. And like you said; because we have two days we can devide it more easily between family and friends, or family from your side and the others. - And finally; I've never been sent to spain, but the threat felt very real! lol. I do remember when I was very young and we were celebrating it with older cousins, my parents thought it would be funny to give me a big bag of salt as a present. I was so emberassed! I was convinced I have been good, why would Sinterklaas do this to me? Cousins and elders all laughing etc. Yeah, didn't like it, was very confused, but my mom was kind enough to tell me something along the lines of "oh don't worry honey, I will just mix it when washing clothes, Sinterklaas won't notice" which made it a lot better! Sorry for all the text, got a bit excited because of the great video I guess! ;-)
I also remember from 35-40 years ago the Bart Smit catalogus, and writing a "verlanglijstje". And you know the season is here when the kruidnootjes start showing up.
Maybe you didn't know it yet, but Santa Claus was created by us Dutch and derived from, yes, Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas Sometime between 270 and 280, Saint Nicholas was born. He was fond of children, gave gifts to the poorest among them, and died in 343 on December 6. Then the story of the origin of Santa Claus is synchronized with that of Saint Nicholas. In the seventeenth century, there was a dividing line between Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus. Dutch migrants bring the feast of Sinterklaas with them to the U.S. However, the Americans felt that they already had too many holidays in the last months of the year (October- Halloween/ 4th Thursday of November- Thanksgiving), and then the birth of Jesus in December. They also thought the concept of gift-giving was more in line with December 25. Coca Cola. In 1626, Saint Nicholas received his first statue in the American city that later became known as New York. It is Dutch sailors who make the statue. They were sailors of a shipping fleet that was led by the 'Good Lady' who had Saint Nicholas as figurehead. In 1773, an American newspaper, the New York City Gazette, wrote about Saint Nicholas for the first time. He is called St. A Claus here. Santa Claus is given a face in the years 1863 and 1886, thanks to the political cartoonist Thomas Nast. In 1931, Santa Claus was born as he is still known today in the 21st century. The art director Haddon Sundblom draws Santa Claus for a big Coca Cola commercial. Santa Claus then spread to Europe, where Great Britain was the first to take over Santa Claus on and around Christmas. 😊 christmaholic.nl/hoe-sinterklaas-santa-claus-werd/
For me the season begins right after my birthday at the end of oktober; Until then nothing that has to do with Sinterklaas is allowed in my house. After that it is already quite soon until Sinterklaas arrives and December 5th. Guidelines are: no Christmas tree until Sinterklaas is gone though less and less people follow that principle anymore. On the topic of Sinterklaas, you guys should try and get your hands on the red label covered movie called: Sint. It's a Dutch movie about Sinterklaas by director Dick Maas. It's a classic Dutch horror movie on the subject and is now basically banned from all television stations and streaming services because of the whole zwarte Piet debacle. The one with the red cover has the English subtitles with it, so that's why i recommend that one. Depending on how you where raised, Christmas can also start here at Christmas Eve/Kerstavond. Folks that hold the Christian belief typically go to church that evening for the Kerst Mis, a special Mis to remember the birth of Christ. I was raised in a Christian household but as an adult am no longer a believer. I do however enjoy the moment that is Christmas Eve and i tend to spend it alone watching the movie A Christmas Carol, or something in that direction. When all children are over the age of Sinterklaas, the whole presents thing in usually shifted to Christmas day on the 25th. After Christmas, on december 31st it's time burn that Christmastree in the street and gather around with your neighbors and light all the fireworks everyone has to celebrate the old year and enter the new year with a bang! And champagne. And probably a hangover Januari 1st ^^
For me now each year I go photograph the intocht in my city (Gouda) and maybe in other cities to. And then on Pakjesavond we (me and my sister, the rest of the family is death) get together and go fonduen. And also since a few years we go to friends the weekend before Pakjesavond to celebrate it with there kids. Oh and I almost each year watch the movie Sint. And eat at least 1 chocolate kruidnoot bag. But that's all I do with Sinterklaas. Since the zwartepietendiscussie it's not has been as much fun anymore to celebrate it. Christmas however is a whole different thing. Around november I visit basically all Intratuin's in the neighboorhood to see the christmas decorations there. From around december I start also photographing other christmas decorations outside. And around the second week or third we have the world famous Kaasjesavond/Gouda bij Kaarslicht. Also my christmas tree has been up the whole year already. And I watch quite a lot of christmas movies. (The best still is Christmas Chronicles 1 and 2). And the whole month there is the Radio 10 top 4000. If not we listen to Skyradio Christmas station. Also in december there are a lot of fireworks shows, which I visit. And then on christmas itself me and my sister eat very nice food. And on the second xmas day we go to the same friends as mentioned before. Sometimes we even have a 3rd day to eat more delicious breakfast and diner.
In my childhood the thing that triggered my "Sinterklaas-feeling" was when the pepernoten became available in the shops. (Usually around the beginning of november). Now they're already in the shops at the end of august! I guess everything changes to .... money. Christmas here, traditionally: 1st day: church (as it's a Christian holiday - and holy day) and the 2nd day it's visiting family (grandparents mostly). Nowadays the American way of celebrating Christmas is growing in popularity, because then people can just wrap up a gift and leave it at that. At Sinterklaasfeest there often need to be a rhyme with it and the gift needs to be concealed as something else (called a surprise, which is in this case not an English word). I like the video! but eh ... don't apologize for saying what you think. We're Dutch, remember. 😉
Santa Claus started out as an amalgam of Dutch Sint Nicolaas and English Father Christmas. So yes, he's part Dutch. The figure of Sinterklaas is based on a bishop of Myra in modern day Turkey. When Myra was islamified, christians 'saved' his remains and brought them to Bari, on the East coast of modern Italy, which was then part of the Spanish empire. (In recent years Turkey has tried to turn what's left of the church into a touristic site, and has found that the crypt, and the bodies burried therein, are undisturbed, but that a nameless but opulent grave above ground had been smashed open and emptied. So whosever remains were brought to Bari, they were probably not Sint Nikolaas'.) In the Netherlands we celebrate Sinterklaasavond (Sint Nikolaas' Eve) on the 5th. In Belgium they celebrate Sinterklaas on the 6th. There are a few places where they celebrate Sint Maarten in stead. To avoid confusion, Sint Maarten wears a white mantle. The key word for Christmas is Christmas diner. I'm glad you're both calling the kruidnootjes by their proper name. Too many people confuse them with pepernoten. Both Sinterklaas and Kerstmis (Christmas) were superimposed by the church on older traditions. Sinterklaas retains elements of both the Wild Hunt, which had Deities and ancestors riding in the sky, doling out justice to the industrious and the lazy (The saint's 'schimmel' - white horse - is considered by many to be directly derived from Odin's horse Sleipnir) and Krampus (Zwarte Piet). Although the Wild Hunt seems to be predominantly Northern European, Krampus and his kin seem to be a Eurasian phenomena. They go by different names, and their attire varies, but save one exception, they're always black and they're always accompanied by a white bearded wise man. Kerstmis, in turn, has been associated with winter solstice, Yul, and the Slaughter of the Pig. With the final harvest done, and the abundance of summer behind them, people slaughtered their four legged recycling plant, that had been fed with scraps and leftovers. This was cause for a feast, since not all of the pig could be preserved and most of it had to be eaten straight away.
the debate around Zwarte Piet comes back every year, most places replaced the black (zwart) by other colors, patterns or "soot smudges" National Arrival should be on the 19th around midday on NPO 1 (tv) and some radio stations, after this all other cities and villages can have there own arrival party and shopping malls/streets will become lively with bands playing sinterklaas songs (switching to Christmas after the 5th) Think of it this way we always had Sinterklaas, your Coca Cola made him into their version, Santa Clause (multiple references are made that it's the same guy -like in Disney's Santa Clause (where Tim Allen Identifies himself as Santa Clause as know all over the world even referring to himself as Christenkind which would translate into child of Christ) and Netflix' Christmas Chronicles when Kurt Russel identifies him self in multiple languages etc.) as result we now have the luxury (not only) in The Netherlands of 2 visits, but to us Santa is like a brother to Sint.... and over the years it kinda evolved into Sinterklaas is mainly for the kids and Xmas/Santa is more for adult or older kids and often more about appreciation than materialism ... sure you can give an expensive gift, but a box of chocolates and a hug often gets you pretty far 😉
That's what my parents told me through out the year, at times when I was annoying (according to them); That if I didn't stop immediately, I'd be off in a sack to Spain. Never took it serious though. But yeah, the jute coalsack filled with presents was always at the front door, after some heavy banging on the front window. And when you were distracted by that, it suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, rained pepernoten, kruidnoten and schuimpjes around you. Most times neighbours where helping each other with the whole operation. But that was in the seventies. I can't tell you how it works nowadays.
I don't think children nowadays are threatened to be obducted by Zwarte Piet to Spain to work there for Sinterklaas as a slave never to return again. I was told that story in the sixties, but it seems to me a bit out of fashion. As for the shoe setting, I would like to add, that on average you do it twice from the time Sinterklaas arrives to the 5th december. Usually you put a carrot in the shoe for the horse and sing a song. What you get is a bit of sweets, or maybe a small play car to play with. Nothing fancy. But, I had instances myself that my shoe was empty because I had bad behavior. A stern warning for eternal slavery! Redeem yourself! Usually children are told at the age of 7 that Sinterklaas is a myth but they have to keep it a secret for the younger children. So the fear was gone for eternal slavery too. My mother replaced that with the threat to give me to the ragman (that at that time came regularly in the street and was not a pleasant sight). Nowadays Zwarte Piet is a friendly figure, helping out a senile old bishop and loving children unconditionally, even the bad ones. He may still be stern, but he won't hurt you anymore. I remember I was not bothered by the slavery part. I was bothered by the fact that Zwarte Pieten were everywhere, knew everything all year long and briefed it to Sinterklaas. Even in summer I cannot count the times that I searched my bedroom to see if Zwarte Piet was there to observe me. I was not really afraid, but anxious about that. I really wanted to outsmart Zwarte Piet and catch him in the act! And don't start me about discrimination of black people because of Zwarte Piet. Yes, he was a slave, but well taken care of, I was told. And I never, ever associated Black Pete with a richly pigmented dark skinned human being. Zwarte Piet was not human, he could do things nobody could, hearing everything enter millions of homes etc. It was indeed a (dark) fairy. Those who associate it with humans do not understand the myth of Zwarte Piet.
In this film Sinterklaas is compared to Santa Clause often by referring to the 1960's. In those days, nobody knew what Halloween was. The Catholics had "Alllerheiligen" and "Allerzielen" on november 1st and 2nd but this was only a religious event, they attended mass and visited graveyards and put flowers on to the graves. Nor did the Dutch had a feast like Thanksgiving day. No turkey, no foodball, no family and off course no black Friday. The Protestant part of the population had a kind of thanksgiving day called: "Dankdag voor het gewas" but also this day was a pure religious event with a lot of worshipping and hours and hours in the church. Just like the two feasts i've mentioned, Christmas was also a pure religious happening. My Catholic father attended mass at least two or three times on december the 25th. (at midnight, early in the morning and in the afternoon (LOF)). And because it was little Jesus birthday families gathered and had a lot of festive meals and family diners. (after returning from the midnight mass (nachtmis) with poultry and meatloaf. A scrumptious family breakfast with all kind of sweet treats and the family diner, often with turkey, rabbit or roasted beef. But in that era no presents were exchanged. On november 11th the protestant children, in the evening, did have a kind of trick or treat, going from door to door with a lantern and begging for sweets because of "Sint Maarten" (Saint Martin) who accoding to the myth, shared his robe with a beggar. (strange because the protestants don't acknowledge saints). The Catholic part of the Netherlands on the 11th is preparing for the Carnavals-season (starting November 11th until Mardi Gras 7 weeks in advance of Eastern). Catholic children went from door to door begging for sweets on January the 6th. (driekoningen) dressed up as the three wise men and singing a song. So Sinterklaas was the only feast where receiving presents and gifts was the core business. The start of the holiday season was the arrival of Sinterklaas from the '60 on broadcasted on TV. And during this broadcast Sinterklaas proclaimed that children were allowed tot place their shoe at the fireplace that evening (often filled with a carrot for the horse and a drawing for the Sint but no other treats like cookies or milk). The next time children placed their shoe at the fireplace was on December the 5th. Just like Santa, Sinterklaas delivered the gifts at night and in the morning the presents were exposed around the fireplace. And.. adults had their own way of celebrating Sinterklaas by having a "Surpriseavond" In those days knowledge of the English language was poor and almost nobody knew that "Surpris" ment "unexpected" Adults on the 5th exchanged presents often wrapped or packed in a funny way (for instance, if someone liked to cook, the present was wrapped in a cardboard cooks hat) and the "surprise" had to be accompanied by a poem, a rhyme. often witty or even malevolent emphasizing the awkwardness or queer character of the receiver. Some favorite wrappings were: presents looking like a Sunday roast made from cottonwool and melasse or looking like a turd made of 'peperkoek' (a kind of gingerbread with melasse and spices). To get to the real present it was a messy and sticky business. During the 70's it became more and more normal that also the children participated in this "Surprise avond" and so the main event shifted from the morning of december the 6th to the evening of the 5th called "pakjesavond" On "pakjesavond" the presents could be delivered by someone dressed up as Zwarte Piet (a blackface helper) or even delivered by Sinterklaas himself. This was quite expensive, so often a neighbour was asked to place the presents at the front door and knock on the door or window when the presents had arrived. Now days pakjesavond is by far more important then december the 6th. Times they are changing! So is luckily the perception of Zwarte Pieten, now only called Pieten, Sinterklaas helpers. In the 18th century almost the entire population of the Netherlands was white. Except on carnivals as a kind of rarity black people were exposed. In that time there was no association with the blackface character "zwarte Piet" and discrimination of black an colored people. Sinterklaas came from Spain and in the 8th century blackamoor (Arab) tribes invaded the south of Spain. Covering your face with black shoe polish of charcoal was an easy way to disguise anybody so that children were unable to recognize their uncle, their neighbour or their teacher as being Sinterklaas helper. Also in the 18th, the 19th and early 20th century this black helper had to scare children so that they would behave good. (not naughty but nice). And children were threatened that they would be taken (in a jute bag) to Spain if they didn't obey. Today it is unacceptable to dress up as a (dumb) blackface. The Dutch population is more and more mixed and no one can deny that Zwarte Piet is discriminating and hurting black and colored people. Only some ultra conservative right wing extremists claim the right to dress up like zwarte piet because of a so called tradition, mostly in retarded communities like the former island Urk of peasants villages like Staphorst. After struggling several years tot find a plausible alternative for the blackface Zwarte Piet, trying "rainbow Pete's and even "stroopwafelpieten" now there seems to be a consensus about the Roetveegpiet, a helper with black strikes on his face because he has to clime up and down the chimneys. Since the turn of the century American influence and commercial interest changed the holiday season in the Netherlands. Halloween has been introduced and gaining popularity, Black Friday offers (somehow with Dutch practicality changed to "Black-Friday-Week") is advertised on radio and television and Sinterklaas is downsized to an event with small presents while de Kerstman (Santa Claus) is donating the big presents. Dutch children are lucky, they get presents on the 5th / 6th of december and on Christmas eve of Christmas day. Unlike religion in the States, Christians have become a small minority in the Netherlands. Therefor Christmas has become less and less a religious feast but a feast of family getting together and enjoying luxury, gifts but most of all food and drink. Some gifts are still typical for Sinterklaas mostly sweets and pastry. A popular gift is still the "Banketletter" a puff pastry filled with an almond/sugar dough shaped like an alphabet-letter like "S" (Sint) of "M" (Mother) or an alphabet-letter made of chocolate, often the initial of the receivers first name. An other typical Sinterklaas-treat is Taai Taai, a very chewy anise seed cookie shaped as a doll and the famous "speculaaspop" a large cookie shaped as a doll, somewhat gingerbread-like but with a lot more and a variety of spices. And then off cours there are "pepernoten" the can be cubical and made of almost the same dough als "taai taai" of made of the same dough as the speculaaspop shaped as small buttons. Together with sweets made of foamed sugar in several shapes and flavours, the mix of "pepernoten" and "schuimpjes" and "suikerwerk" is called "strooigoed" and the Pieten trow that mis into the audience or hide that, as the song tells us in a corner (in één of andere hoek). As a character Sinterklaas is not only less jolly and more stately compared to Santa he is als less forgiving and less careful an much more vindicatory. Santa is making a list every year and checking it twice to find out who is naughty of nice! The next year he starts all over again making a new list and checking it again. Not so Sinterklaas, he writes everything in a large book ("het grote boek") doesn't check it even once and brings back that book year after year so if a child has had a bad year it is noted every year since... I suppose my childhood mistakes are still to be found on the pages of 1961until 1967 when I as a six year old stopped believing and became a devoted atheïst.
The story that I've heard is that Sint moved to New Amsterdam/York with the Dutch founders. You Americans promptly cloned him and Coca Cola offered the clone a permanent position after finding him in the gutter in the Bowery. (That drink problem again!) Just sayin! No offence intended. Not trying to be controversial here!
We celebrate Sinterklaas with gifts and Christmas with our families. Dinner together etc. No presents. But some of my friends celebrate with presents at Christmas, particularly when the children grow up and no longer believe Sinterklaas exists. I like the tradition though, so even now that my kids are 19 and 21, we still have presents at Sinterklaas. The Sinterklaas horse used to be named Amerigo by the way. Since 2019 it is Ozosnel.
The Sinterklaas celebration is a mixture of different cultures and religions. A lot of asspects of Sinterklaas himself are based on the germanic pagan god Odin - Wodan. Wodan is decribed as a tall man with white beard, a spear and a hat. Wodan rides in the sky with a eigthlegged horse Sleipnir, Sinterklaas rides on the roofs. Saint Nicholas was the bishop of Myra, which is now Izmir, Turkey. But during his life that was part of the Roman Empire. He is a patron of children because of a miracle he performed. But he is also patron saint of seafarers and harbour cities like Amsterdam, therefor the steam ship. Children threatened to taken away in the sack, was a thing. The Pieten would listen if children would behave well. Wodan had two ravens Hugin and Munin who would tell him what was happening in the world. I think Sinterklaas apologized for taking children away a year ago, if I remember it right? Presents were delivered in a burlap sack, with a knock on the door. I remember my older brother getting all worked up. ´This year I am going to find out!` and sprinting to the front door when the door bell rung. ;-) He or we never found out. Tammy, ´o zo snel´ just means ´oh so fast´, and is a line in a song. I don´t remember it having a name. It was called schimmel after its colour: gray horse.
Christmas in our family was more about the birth of Jesus. 24th we went to evening church. 25th We went to church, sang psalms etc, went home and came together with a lot of family with a big familydinner. Then church again. 2nd day, 26th we visited our grandparents and when the 27th fell on a sunday we called it 3rd Christmasday and went on familywalks in the snow, yeah longggg time ago. It was all about Christ and family, no presents.😊
Love how you guy's dive into the Dutch traditions, foods, and way of life. But this comparison doesn't work. Because they are two different things. I mean that we too have Santa Claus but he's called the "kerstman" and the whole christmas story. And before that we have Sinter klaas which is not connected to Santa Claus but is a seperate "party". As soon as he arrives children can place there shoes at a fireplace or whatever and get a little present (mostly some chocolate or other small candy) and at his birthday (5 december) it's called "pakjesavond" (evening of presents) the children get more and bigger gifts (toys, games, ect). After that he leaves back to spain and we prepare for christmas same as in the states. So children in Holland have two seperate times for joy and presents. So stop being bad or you go into the zak (sack) and you'll be taken to spain. Keep up the fun vids. :P
When you wish you should go to one of the Sinterklaas arrival parties. Almost every year we are watching from my sisters home along the Amstel River in Amsterdam, with hot chocolate and many special St Klaas treats. Although the kids are now getting a bit too big, it's still a fun tradition. At about the 5th of December they'll exchange gifts and poems and at some houses also surprise gifts (you'll have to search a bit for your gift). It's a bit like a Piñata. Adults will mostly get chocolate or simple gifts. With Christmas gifts for the adults are a bit more luxurious and useful, like perfume, jewelry, clothes etc. And the first day is mostly reserved for close family, the second day may vary from family to family. Depending on tradition.
So the tradition has developed in different lines, but your Santa Claus started as our Dutch Sinterklaas in the 17th century in New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony. Over time Saint Niclous/Sinterklass merged with other traditions and influences of the Brits, German and Scandinavian immigrants who had their own version of Christmas tradition. And then Coca Cola came in the 1930's and the whole thing became Santa, just one big commercial and marketing thing. And now even worse: our Sinterklaas looks more and more like the American Santa Claus and our tradition has also become more and more a big marketing tool. And about that other thing: After more then two decades of very aggressive discussion in our society about "Black Piet/Zwarte Piet" it seems to settle in most parts to the Netherlands. It's now just Piet and Piet can be coloured in any colour or just with some black dust from the chimney. The parts of the country where they still hang on to the real black faces are the very Christian parts (Bible belt) or very rural parts, so where people need more time to get the point. At the end traditions are not frozen in time, they always develop and change, so this one will also.
Ok, about the punishment of the children who were bad. Mostly it was when Sinterklaas would visit the school. Then the big book came out and everybody got judged. If you were a little bad, Sinterklaas would say: do you promise to be good from now on? Or do you want a beating with the roede, that is a bundle of twigs. Pieten usually cary them. If you were very bad, the choice could be Spain or be good. Even teachers get judged. About pakjesavond, that is when the big sack of presents would be at the door, it is an arrangement between neighbours. You get the sack from the place were the parents hid them, take it to the door, while the parents distract the kids by singing, hit the window with a roede and run and hide! Hahaha, great fun. I have done it a couple of times and it gives you a great relationship with your neighbours also. This was in my childhood here in the eastern part of the Netherlands. I hope you understand it a bit better now. You got of easy… 😏😉 Greetings and ajuus, 🙋🏽♂️🇳🇱🌮
First sign of Sinterklaas arriving would be the toy store catalogus arriving mostly mid October. But that was all toys.... And making a list. And hanging on to it, because you either had to hand deliver at an intocht or put in your shoe. Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands by steamboat on the first Saturday after Saint Martinsday (Sint Maarten). Which is November 11th. In 2023 that will be the 18th. That's the "landelijke intocht" (national parade) and will be broadcasted on tv by the Sinterklaas Journaal. (That is a relatively new thing, when I was a kid in the 80s we only had 2 moments where we saw Sinterklaas on tv: intocht and a visit to the Dutch Sesamestreet on december 5th). Upon arriving, at the end of the broadcast, Sinterklaas will say that we are all alowed to put out our shoes that night. Usually the Pieten will tell the parents what nights to put out the shoes, it's not all nights until december 5th. For my kids we used the calendar from the Sinterklaasjournaal website to mark the nights they could pit out their shoes. You sing the songs to let Sint and Piet know you appreciate them. And you can put a nice drawing, letter, wishlist, a carrot for the horse (this one is called Ozosnel, Tammy was right, but when I was a kid it was called Americo, but that horse died), hay for the horse, water for the horse or a sugar cube for the horse in your shoe. The next morning the Pieten will have collected all the stuff (via the chimney if your house has one) and either put in a small present "schoencadeau" or candy in your shoe. Sometimes a Piet or even Sinterklaas wrote an answer to your letter. Our shoes were placed on the stairs to rhe attic as our hous didn't had a fireplace so Piet used our roofwindow. Next to the national intocht, Sint also has his own intocht in each village and city. Those by the water usually have him arrive by boat and greeted by the mayor, but my town had him arrive by train. There is a little parade were the Pieten give candy and the kids give drawings and wish lists. Usually there is some appearance in a theather in the weeks before pakjesavond and Sint and Piet usually also visit on schools, sport clubs and workplaces. The main day, december 5th, no more shoes required. The presents arrive in a sack by the door, usually just when dad has a bathroom break as you are all singing. But sometimes they get handdelivered by some Pieten and at my grandparents even by Sinterklaas himself with Pieten. It's my favorite holliday. And this year will be my first as a mom of kids who know how it works so mommy can play Piet again.
How do children sleep at night? You should brush up on European folklore and fairy tales. Our children aren't little pussies that get scared over every little thing. We tell them scary stories from very early one hehe :D Christmas in the USA has always been about the big corporations. It was invented by coca cola and has very little to do with actual birth of Christ as we celebrate it here. Same for Halloween. Which is Samhain in the Celtic lands (Ireland/Scotland) and some parts of the Nordic countries. the USA Halloween is just a watered down bastardized version. Personally I find it very annoying to see actual European festivities and (religious)rituals being butchered like that. Its very disrespectful even. Lol St Nicolas needs Pete to remind him...because he lacks a wife? I dare to say that he can give away so many gifts each year, because he doesn't have a wife that throws his money down the drain :D Also religious figures in the olden days weren't allowed to get married. so makes sense he doesn't have a wife. Sinterklaas Journaal is for the children. So every year they make a different story to make it fun and interesting for the children. The boat sinking last year was just one of those silly story arcs. The children get the gifts either in a sack he hangs. Or he actually visits the house, usually an uncle that dresses up, to come inside. They then knock absurdly loudly on the doors, the door gets opened a little bit, then the pete's throws kruidnoten and candy into the living room, then sinterklaas and the pieten enter the room. At my work, at a sporthall, my manager dresses up as Sint and we then have lots of children come in with music and stuff. Yup if you're a bad kid you get een "Roe" so your parents can spank you. If you're really terrible you get taken away for punishment. If you think this is bad... you should hear about some folklore stories we tell our kids that'll do much worse to kids.
Another saying: "Wat niet weet, wat niet deert." That kinda explains it, I guess. It means: You don't have to bother about things you don't know about. Remember, we're talking small kids here.
There are a lot of misconceptions about these holidays. St. Nicolas and Santaclaus are the same figure. That figure is a lot older than most Dutch even know. The same goes for black Pete. They are both form old Germanic believe systems. The origin is the upper god Wodan/Odin cumming from Valhalla down on his 8 legged horse Sleipnir t reward the good people and punish the bad people. To punish the bad people there is the boss of the realm of the dead named Nörwi. Nörwi looks like the church symbolizes the devil but is completely black to symbolize the connection with the real of the dead. Black Pete has something called a Roe, a buch of twigs. He can hit with that. Nörwi did the same by hitting the woman with it at the lower legs. That is part of a Germanic virility rite. That realm is called hell, but is not the burning hell the church made out of it. The closest to the original feast is the Austrian Grampus. The Dutch black Pete is not a black Face like in the 30s and 40s in America but Nörwi and thus Germanic northern European heritage we should be. The woman from the UN that made that a problem did not know anything of that Germanic origin. I also did not knew that until some people started calling black Pete racism. The entire party is Sinterklaas, chrismas and new years together is old Germanic Yule. Celebrating the shortest day and the up cumming spring. Instead of trying to destroy it we should preserve it as much as possible.
We used to agree to a certain amount of money each could spend on small presents and tongue-in-cheek things for one person whoms ‘lotery ticket’ you pulled. And it was kept a big secret for whoyou would buy/make the presents that year! This way there was no difference (or prestige-thing/favoratism) possible. And ofcourse at least one funny/cheeky personal poem had to be made! Gifts were wrapped, poems were written in secrecy, only reveiled on the Sinterklaas avond. For the kiddies it was all about the suspense and presents, for the adults all about fun and gezelligheid.
OMG You seem so confused about Sinterklaas and you did not even find out about “surprises”. (Pronounced as : Sur-pree-sus) That’s a whole new can of worms. 😂😂😂
Hahaha this was funny! So if Santa and Sinterklaas would be one person, his wife would remind him constantly of his AA meetings… I don’t remember much about sinterklaas in my youth. Didn’t like him I guess. I do know when I told my little girl that Sinterklaas isn’t real, she looked at me with huge eyes and said ‘You lied to me!’ Yep. I did. So Christmas it is…
We (used to be) kids did the same for Sinterklaas: foraging through the big Bart Smit and/or Intertoys advertising books that were sent to every household. Ripping out the things you wanted, stcking them on the letter to Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet in your carrotfilled shoe. Later on (untill now?) the kids have a Sinterklaas-app to send him their wishes!!
When I grew up, Christmas was a religious celebration. On Christmas Eve (24 December) there was the midnight mass and breakfast ( in the middle of the night and again the next morning). Sometimes there were religious Christmas songs (not Rudolf the red nose reindeer) like Stille Nacht etc. Next day I was going to church again and in the afternoon going back to see the Christmas decoration with Jesus Christ. The first day was with the family and so was the second day. If you were married, you went the first day to your parents and the second day to your in-laws or the other way around. Later, when I had my child, I did not do a religious Christmas anymore. I went to so see a movie for children, with my family, and had a delicious diner afterwards. My mother never came at Christmas because she wanted it to celebrate in a religious way (she was not mad at us, just wanted her celebration her way). My in-laws organized a diner with the whole family on the second Christmas day or between Christmas and New Year's Eve. There were never presents at Christmas. Not when I was a child, and also not when I had my own child. Some people give presents on Christmas day, when their children are adults and do not celebrate Sinterklaas anymore. We never did that.
it used to be that there were only presents from St Nicolaas in the night of 5-6 december; nowadays children get to 'set their shoe' every evening, but presents are not given every night. Often only in the weekends. and up till the 5th of december only small gifts like sweets and chocolate. St Nicolaas walks over the roofs on his horse and does help disperse the gifts (through the chimney!). He plays a bit dumb to help others to find a solution successfully but he knows everything will turn out fine!. Some people choose to exchange gifts at christmas. Sint does (no longer) not take children to Spain, but you can get a 'roe' (bundle of twigs)
Hello Tammy and Eric first i just wanted to say i love your videos. just wanted to clarify a few things about sinteriklaas as you mentioned sinterklaas goes on the roof and he puts little gifts in the shoes that is why he goes on the roof . and on dec 5 and he will knock and leave a bag with gifts at the door . and they are zwart piet that is the tradition and i m not worried about that politically correct stuff
"We" took Sinterklaas to America. Coca-Cola changed his apperance, and placed him round christmas, as Santa claus. We took his twin brother right back, cause 2 is always better. 😂
And i have a real roe here at my house. I also still have these branches were they are made from. And i still have a chimney which is in use right now, burning wood. My house is from 1870 and is in the Belgium Ardennes. Here they also celebrate Sint Nikolaas. I am Dutch. The language here is German ( yes, really).
When I grew up we could put out our shoes every Saturday Sinterklaas was in The Netherlands. We made a nice drawing for Sinterklaas and got some Sinterklaas candy in return. On the 5th of december Black Pete brought presents. Knocking on the door and threw some candy in the room. Left the presents in the hallway. The punishments for being naughty where indeed taking away to Spain and even beating by Pete. Nowadays there are no punishments left. Also Black Pete is gone. Now it's Pete in all different colours and shades. Christmas in my days was going to church in the evening of the 24th and a midnight bread meal after that. On 25th we were going to the paternal grandparents and have a Christmas diner at home. 26th we went to the maternal grandparents. No gifts with Christmas.
The entire modern Sinterklaas stuff we have now was all invented in the 19th century to civilize the "Sinterklaas lopen" depravity that was going on at the time. Hence, the Christian elements were emphasized as were national Dutch virtues like moderation and frugality. The old traditions are still in full swing every year on the Wadden islands where Sunneklaas, Sunderum etc are still celebrated with wild abandon. Such wild abandon that non-islanders are actively discouraged from staying on Ameland around december 5th. All this is very reminiscent of the Germanic "wild hunt"
Sinterklaas was a real bissop, the bishop of Myra, in what today is Turkey , who lived from the year 270 until 335, he actualy died on the 6th of december. He was famous for giving presents to poor children and was sainted as Saint Nicholas in the year 550. He is the patron saint of sailors.
and coalminers. Which is why Piet wears blackface, it's coaldust!
@@jwenting Slight detail: it's not blackface, just a blackened face from the coaldust (and chimney soot). Blackface is something completely different (like Louis Armstrong used to paint his face when singing songs like Hello Dolly).
@@peterkeijsers489 The black has worn off over the years.
@@Djekkie-gj7jz Because of better working conditions
@@itsalwayshalloweenexceptwh5118😅😅😅😅
Why don't you ask one of your Dutch friends if you can celebrate Sinterklaas with them and get the full experience with poems and "surprises"?
The five most known Sinterklaas songs:
*Zie ginds komt de stoomboot.
*Sinterklaas kapoentje.
*Daar wordt aan de deur geklopt.
*O, kom er eens kijken.
*De zak van Sinterklaas
If you have Dutch friends you can celebrate Sinterklaas together.
I like your vid's. So keep up the good work. And enjoy the holidays
Here’s a little Sinterklaas tradition you haven’t touched on about the giving of gifts:
A lot of people go all-out on the wrapping, and it has to be as creative as possible and themed. The theme either refers to the gift, something the person receiving the gift is passionate about, gentle ribbing about a habit or typical trait they have, their job (for adults because adults often get gifts too during Pakjes-avond), or downright a joke to make everyone laugh. It has to be crafted together by the giver (not bought ready-made).
Someone who is going to move houses might receive his or her gift in a box that has been made to look like a moving truck. Someone who is always on their mobile phone might get theirs in wrapping shaped like a mobile phone signal tower, a SIM card or like a mobile phone. An avid gardener might get a flower pot shaped gift (or in the shape of any piece of gardening equipment).
This tradition isn’t very recent, my mother’s family already did this and she turned 80 this September. My mother’s family always had a lot of dogs. Grandma often complained about puppies leaving messes for her to clean up. If I remember correctly, my uncle crafted a very lifelike poo out of clay, painted it and varnished it with the help of Grandpa. Grandma’s gift (small piece of jewellery) was hidden inside a cavity underneath the poo. The fake poo went in a box that got wrapped following another theme that fit Grandma.
My nephew prefers to receive money he can then spend later on something he wants (he’ll tell me then and thanks me again), usually computer related. I don’t like giving cash but find an enormous amount of pleasure in creatively wrapping that money. Fold bills like origami (tough to unfold, hence fun to see him struggling), stuff coins inside packing peanuts and mix them inside an enormous box with other packing peanuts which causes him to spend a good fifteen minutes collecting all the hidden cash, stuffing bills inside paper straws and returning those to their original wrapping (of course not every straw contains cash), making him a money tree with coin ‘fruit’ hanging off the branches, … it’s always good for a laugh and my nephew loves it, because apparently he tells his parents, sister and friends he can’t wait to see what crazy wrapping idea comes next. And don’t worry: the rest of the family gets crazily wrapped gifts too.
Traditionally the petes crawl down the chimney. But that story, even for kids, became harder and harder to explain with central heating in all the houses.
On Sinterklaasavond, the presents are indeed put into a large bag or sack. Sometimes the bag is put besides the front door, with dad sneaking out the back door, putting it before the front door, knocking or ringing, and running back. But stories like "oh yes, i nearly forgot, someone put a big dirty bag before the door, I put it in the shack behind the house, you dont't mind, do you?" were also used. Neighbours often assisted with banging on the door.
Nice that you touched upon Sinterklaas being a little bit senile. I greatly dislike the RTL image of black pete, with the petes being stupid. In my childhood time, the Pieten often outsmarted Sinterklaas, so I never experienced that as discrimination.
Sinterklaas presents in the family should be accompanied by (long) poem, in which the receives is teased in a friendly way with his faults over the pas year.
Just saw you guys on the 125 tram, thought you looked familiar, but wasn't sure😂
Lol!! Have a great afternoon!!
Grown ups celebrate Sinterklaas also: important tradition is that you write a poem to the person you give a gift. The poems are poking fun at each others habits or experiences of that year. The gifts are mostly not that expensive and sometimes wrapped up to look like something entirely different "een surprise" with the present inside.
Our family would sit in the living room singing Sinterklaas songs, curtains closed. Then the neighbours would bang the kitchen windows and door, open it slightly, throw some candy into the living room and run off before we could see them, leaving behind a big basket of presents.
So Dutch holidays also known in the US:
So the typical 'Dutch secular way' for these holidays:
Eastern
- National holiday, preceded by 'Good Friday'. While 'Good Friday' is not a national holiday, it is usually a day that is taken off so you can extend your Easter weekend, the monday following it is a national holiday meaning you get the day off from work. Eastern comes from the Germanic (people that largely influenced this part of Europe where Germany was named after) feast of Ostara, a fertility goddess, that was celebrated at this time because the chickens would now start to lay eggs again (we now have bred chickens that breed all year round, but back in the day people longed for the chickens to lay eggs again). Ostara liked both chickens, rabbits and hares for there fertility properties. We start at breakfast usually with a yellow tablecloth adorned with yellow chicklits and or hares (the bunny being a hare). Eggs are served predominantly abd are or already painted or painted at the the table or later in the day. Before breakfast or sometimes after there is a egg hunt where real or chocolate eggs have been hidden and now must be found. This is usually left to the children but adults join in also. The rest of the weekend is usually spend with family making use of the free monday following it. There is also a race event this weekend.
Pentacost
This is usually also is a weekend spend with (extended) family and a national holiday also extanded by a 2nd pentacost day on the monday, which you also take off from work, mostly mandatory. There is also an old pop music festival called PinkPop (as Pentacost is 'Pinksteren') in Dutch, that is very popular as an alternative to spend this weekend.
Ascension
It always on Thursday and also a day off in the Netherlands so usually employees also take the Friday off creating yet another streak of off days. Again often used to do things with friends and family.
Sinterklaas
This feast is what has become mutated into Christmas in other countries. Sinterklaas is the collogial? name for St. Nicolaas (Saint Nicolas, does that ring a bell yet...?), an old Saint that was good to poor people. By legend he visited a house where three daughters lived that could not get married because they could not pay the dowry. He trew in 3 golden coins. There are multiple saints called Nicolas and none of them ever visited Spain, he lived in Myra in what now is Turkey. Nevertheless Sinterklaas the legend comes from Spain where he lives in a castle with his paid servant Black Pete. The garments that Black Pete wares are clothes of a Spanish nobleman, not those worn by slaves. Later they became a large group of servants, the Black Petes. This part of the story has given rise to much controversy because of that his sevant might have been a slave and because the Black Pete's are usually white people with black painted faces. The story now is that his face is black from the sooth, black pete also enters by the chimney and the people who play him are not fully painted black but have black smudges. Black Pete carries a bag of candy and 'pepernoten' (gingerbread nuts). These where traditionally trown at the children (referring back to the legend of the golden coins) but because of practicality and hygiene are now often handed out or in Corona time dispatched in plastic bags. On December 5th the family sits at the diner table. The curtains are closed which is very unusual in the Netherlands and very impractical for the children who now can not see anyone approaching the front door. Then there is a loud knock at the door, but when it is opened no one is there. There is however a large sack of gifts. Before this highlight a special news bulletin will follow the arrival and adventures of Sinterklaas in the previous month and periodically small gifts are left in the shoes of children.
Christmas
As said Christmas mutated from Sinterklaas, the Jul (Big Hunt by the Northern Gods), the feast of light and the eding of winter (a very hard and sometimes deadly time in the olden days). Saint Nicholas a merger of Sinterklaas, Wotan the head of the Scandinavian or Germanic Gods, and some other pixie lore and myths. It was Christened Christmas to subdue the pagan beliefs over time and to celebrate to birth of Christ. Although the Catholic church and the rest of the world do not know when Chist was born, it is unlikely that it was during winter time because all of the cattle and the shepards where out in the fields and sleeping there. It origins still shine through though. Santa Claus is called Saint Nick, refering to Sint Nicolaas aka Sinterklaas. The evergreen tree represented fertility and a residence to winter, the lights in it the return of the light and there summer. 'May your Jul times, be gay and merry' or something I don't remember the lyrics exactly refers to the Jul, etcetera.
Christmas is celebrated like in the US, doubling our Christmas time 😊. Although we often pick either Christmas or Sinterklaas to do the presents. And we never make Turkey, that's your tradition.
Back when I was a kid Sinterklaas was for kids with all the presents (we had those toy magazines too around that time) And when you got older it moved to Christmas with family gifting each other presents, but that one was never about Santa Claus.
When I was a child and believed that Sinterklaas was real, it was all about putting your shoe twice a weak under the radiator (we had no chimney). Then on the 5th of december I was nervous all day, because in the evening Sinterklaas would bring the presents. We celebrated this evening with our family.
Christmas was all about “celebrating” the birth of Jesus, with a christmas tree and all the little statues of the three kings, mother Mary, Joseph and Jesus in a crib, surrounded by sheep, and the donkey. The donkey stood next to Jesus, because his breath would keep Jesus warm.
On the 25th of december we had a big diner with the whole family (after going to church in the morning) and after diner we drink wine and beer. It was a wonderful time and I still have great memories of that.
I work with elderly people and christmas to them is still putting on their best clothes and have a extensive breakfast and diner with their family. For the elderly who don’t have family to go to, they get a special diner, made by cooks. This is also my favourite time to work, because of the special atmosphere.
Sinterklaas in Belgium is a bit different. Here he comes the night from 5 on 6 december. So you find your present on the 6th in the morning. Here is no pakjesavond. The name off his horse here is 'Goedweervandaag' (Good wether today). The bad kids; Piet has a big bag with him, with the toys and the sweets. When you were a bad kid, they said that Piet puts you in this empty bag to take you with them to Spain. Of couse this was only a way to have only good children.
So mister Jones, you've got just a miserable thousand LED's to lighten up your Christmas tree?
I, as in me and my family, got a million...
Nana nana naaa-nah!
- I believe Sint Nicholas never actually was in Spain ever. Bishop of Myra (now in Turkey) and buried in Italy. But for the Dutch, Spain was a big rival (80 years of war, etc) so easily used as the villain country where you did not want to go to.
- Putting your shoe at the chimney is never a daily thing, maybe twice a week max. The shoe was used also like a mailbox, put your wishlist in your shoe with a carrot for the horse. Piet would take both and leave some candy, pepernoten and sometimes a small gift.
- The gifting traditions very per Dutch household. In my family there was a lot of effort in making the surprises, meaning disguising the presents in something else. For example, my brother one year kept asking for a dog, his present was disguised as a dog from paper, etc. Because of this effort, my parents wanted to show them off longer than just a few hours on December 5th. So the story was that the Pieten would bring some presents every few days and put the in our cupboard with glass doors. Very exciting for us children, every morning running downstairs to see if something new was there and to see if we could guess for who the present would be. No name tags until the day of the celebrations. Oh, and there was a Sinterklaas poem for each person.
- The threat of Spain did not work in our family. 😂 We had a holiday home there so us children knew it was a nice place. The threat for us was not getting any presents.
santa originally wore a green suit, it was the coca-cola advertising that turned his suit "coca-cola red".
I did not know that!
Thanks
Eric
Most parents allow the kids shoes at the door 1-3 times a week.
A free trip to Spain in the winter. Never sounded bad to me as a kid. 😂
Sinterklaas was a catholic event. Most protestants did not celebrate it. Somewhere around middle november sint came to the town where you live and was greeted by the mayor of the town. Not so in the bible belt, there were no sinterklaas festivities. There were also no big festivities on Christmas because for both protestants and catholics this was a holy day, to remember Christ birth.
Sinterklaas is based on history (from Myra, Turkey). Santa Claus is create by Coca Cola (I got that good stuff that you want
Let me be your pusher, pusher, pusher, ey
I got that good stuff that you want
Let me be your pusher, pusher, pusher, ey).
The story of how Sinterklaas delivers the presents is the story of "Pakjesavond". On that night, Sinterklaas goes across the rooftops with his horse and his pieten to deliver the gifts to all the children who have been good. The pieten would go down the chimneys, delivering the gifts at the fireplace for the children to wake up to the next morning. But if you were bad, the pieten would take you along with them to Spain in their bags (the same bags as for the candies and the gifts). That's also the explanation given for why all the pieten are black: because of all the soot from the chimneys.
It's a pretty gruesome story of hierarchy and kidnapping, to be honest...
St Nicolaas is for kids, very old tradition, he's Woden/Odin the god of Wednesday in roman disguise. He has the weird hat, the white stallion, the stick , just like Gandal basically, his horse can ride over roofs, like Sleipnir the horse of Woden could.
Woden has raves as helpers, St Nicolaas has his freed African slave, he freed from the Moroccans, who now out of gratitude helps him... Now a days, the freed slave changed skin colour , I guess it was a bit too confronting.
This year I'll kick Sinterklaas so his helpers, named Black Peter, put me in a bag and take me to Spain! Saves me the plane ticket! 😂
The sint is about children, santa is about wallstreet 🤣
The big children 😂😂
GOOD ONE!!! 😂
And in Holland about food
When I came to Holland in the early 70’s Christmas wasn’t so visible in the way of lights and advertising. It definitely was a time that I would really get home sick. Sinter Clause, however, was the big thing and quite honestly I found it was very impressive because families would make funny presents with poems for each other instead of expensive gifts. It was very family oriented. It was not great big, expensive gifts but handmade gifts and special poems made up for each gift. I could really appreciate this. Unfortunately over the years it has changed here more towards the American way. Marketing, marketing, marketing, Buy, Buy, Buy. The bigger the better. So sad😢 Sinter Cause is disintegrating 😢 Now a days they also show those sweet, innocent Christmas movies every night during the Christmas season. Also, everyone is lighting up their homes, mostly with white lights. The Christmas markets are everywhere from September! Although, I have warm memories of Christmas in America, I know now that what it is all about is marketing and spending lots and lots of money.
I'm 39yo and I remember those big toy catalogues in the 80s and 90s. I rarely wanted anything from them (except for coloring pencils), which was a good thing since our family wasn't well off. When I became a teen we started doing the "surprises" (handmade gifts with poems). I'm really glad that tradition has survived. People are still doing it today. There's usually a spending limit (15~20eu) so things stay fun and affordable. I wouldn't be surprised if people were writing their poems by using chat GPT these days 😂
I don't want the netherlands to completely go the american way regarding christmas. Some houses in the US are so decked out it hurts the eyes. I prefer the classic christmas aesthetic (warm toned lights, christmas trees, real wreaths, holly, pine cones, traditional baubles, etc).
I haven't noticed a sharp increase in consumerism around dutch christmas, but I guess I should ask my friends who have kids about what they do regarding christmas. If I remember correctly most families have a rule that they either have presents during sinterklaas or christmas, not both. The large majority seem to opt for presents for sinterklaas, and then maybe a small gift (socks, some candy, etc) for christmas. But a lot of people seem completely fine without any gifts during christmas, it's mostly a family oriented celebration.
If the decorations are up and I can make mulled wine and watch tv with my parents and my brother then it'll be complete for me. Bonus points for old christmas music.
Hi
Did you know that Santa Claus is the American answer to our Sinterklaas. Immigrants took it to the USA and Coca Cola got away with it.
Sinterklaas comes mid November with a huge boat (filled with packages) from Spain to Holland. Born in Turkey.
It’s mainly a children’s event.
When I was young the Pieten had a sac and a roe.Witch is a bundel of branches.If we were not listening or did bad things,they could take us to Spain with them..And the roe to beat,so it was horrible for children...
Many people were protestants or reformatory believers they (still) don't put up Christmas Trees etc.
@@koevoetje When I was a kid I thought the whisk (which you call roe) was the bishop's staff. So I made sure to be in the nice list of the big book of Sinterklaas. 😬
Santa Claus derived from Sinterklaas. It was brought to the USA when the Dutch established New Amsterdam.
The modern Dutch name sounds different but if you the name spoken in the southeast dialects of the Netherlands (and probably in old Dutch) it sounds quite similar; sènterkloas.
I have happy memories of Sinterklaas. Putting your shoe near the chimney filled with a carrot for the horse and the next morning you would find something like a chocolate letter or something like that.
The neighbors scared us a little, a few days before Sinterklaas, by bouncing on the back door and then throw some pepernoten in the kitchen. My parents would do the same for their children.
On the day itself you got your presents with rhymes.
The children had to make a present for the parents also with Sinterklaas rhymes.
The punishment for bad behavior - being put in a bag and taken back to Spain - was always brought in such a way that you knew you didn’t have to take that threat very seriously.
We never had presents at Christmas. Then we had two days of eating delicious foods. The house decorated and a Christmas tree. When I was in primary school, on one evening we went to church for a special Christmas mass.
Google for “The History of How St. Nicholas Became Santa Claus - National Geographic,” they have published the whole history of him.
Is that why Americans rever to Santa as saint Nic?
@@MarcelL-DM I never heard of saint Nik but it looks like it. Sinterklaas or Sint Nikolaas he’s called here.
@@palantir135 he's als called Sinterkloas here in Groningen 😅
@@MarcelL-DM more or less the same as in Brabant and North Limburg.
Vier Sinterklaas dit jaar als volwassene, trek lootjes, maak een surprise en gedicht. Zo benieuwd hoe jullie dat ervaren. Complimenten voor jullie video's.
Hello Eric and Tammy, thanks again for a very nice video! There is a lot to say about Sinterklaas and Christmas in the Netherlands. As for Sinterklaas: for small children (approximately under 7) it is especially an exciting time with presents and sweets, but once you get past that age it is often a family event with Sinterklaas poems where you can make fun of someone or give them lots of compliments, and then you can give (and get) fake gifts and real gifts.
Christmas is much more of a family event. First Christmas day a visit to the parents and second to the in-laws (vice versa). A special Christmas dinner is part of it. It's always a puzzle to figure out what the planning looks like with the family, and since the Dutch love planning, that's difficult 😥. What I think is important is that it does not become too commercial an event and there it probably differs enormously from the USA.
Hey guys, well to start more or less where you guys started: Our Fall/Winter season basically starts I'd say at 11 November Sint Maarten. This is our non horror related, non scary, non Trick or Treat children's walk from door to door and sing Sint Maarten songs to get candy from the people from the homes they rang the font door bell from. Then a week later Sint Nicolaas arrives with his steam boat from Spain with all of the presents for all the well behaved children. As of that moment children in general are allowed to put their shoe (with or without a carrot) at night at the fireplace or any or any other place which is pointed out and sing to Sint Nicolaas. He will not bring gifts until the 5th of December, but he will bring little candy's and Piet will go down the chimney to put the candy in their shoes to build up the tension for the evening of the 5th of December. It really is all about the evening 5th of December. If you've not been good Piet will hunt you down and slap you with his roe (his chimney sweep made out of small tree branches) you will end up in the Sack of Sint Nicolas (Sinterklaas) different spelling; same dude, and since the cargo room of the ship will be empty of presents, the cargo room can be filled with nasty kids to ship them to Spain and to work in the Toy factory to teach them a lesson. This is the dutch Sint Nicolaas version. Sint Nicolaas however is celebrated all over Europe for over 1000 years and the stories can and will locally be slightly different. This also goes for the character which accompanies Sint Nicolaas. In Germany and Austria and other countries there are no Piet characters but they have Krampus as the companion of Sint Nicolaas. Go look him up (Krampus) even here at UA-cam and see the difference between our Piet and Krampus, hahaha. Our Piet is so sweet...
Any way as you may have established by now; our Sint Nicolaas celebrations have got nothing, I mean really nothing to do with X-mas at all. To us two absolute different and non related holidays. In fact Sint Nicolaas is celebrated for over 1000 Years and the Christmas-man as we call him (you guys call him Santa Claus) was based up on 2 things really: A European Scandinavian myth of a person (looks from a distance a bit like your Santa Claus) riding the clouds on a Sleigh pulled by Rain-deers and of course our Sinter Klaas. If you look it up you will find out that Santa Claus is made up by the Coca Cola company somewhere in the 1930's. So to you guys it may look like this Santa Claus has been around forever...but I think it is safe to say that he has been around for what? Like 95 years while Sint Nicolas has bee around for over 1000 years.. just saying... Your American Santa Claus was not really introduced here in Europe I'd say since the 1980's and he is still (to us Europeans) the sad made up bad replica of Sinter Klaas and he comes at the wrong period of time... X-mas to us was a religious celebrating of the birth of JC and so we did have a christmas tree, but underneath there was a little farmer stall containing the all of the main characters from the religious book. So not just the fresh born JC, but also his mom M and 3 random eastern dudes carrying knowledge and gifts. And we were all dressed up nicely (we looked our best in our nicest clothes: The men all in suit and the women all in their best dresses) and the music played religious songs about JC and we burned candles and we had conversations in a family atmosphere and later we ate a very nicely cooked dish (usually very complicated like deer-back and so) The last thing that would come up in our mind were gifts...this was a moment of reflection and not of greed. So I hope you guys will understand that the Over-The-Top 5000 gifts per kid from a bad replica of Sinter Klaas at the wrong period of time was quite a confusing and disturbing and wrong (it felt that way at least) over the top initiative from the USA, of course the USA, since everything that came from the USA was over the top. Nothing was normal, everything had to be in USA Over-compensation-mode. We often asked ourselves what on earth was wrong with those over the top Americans and their over the top USA products and over the top celebrations... why can it not be simply modest; small, worthwhile, durable... It after all are the little things in life that are most valuable, especially while most of these little things are for free, and yet priceless to get; like love, affection, a friend, family you name it...
None of these things can be bought and so no matter how big and over the top you make a religious fest into a consumer driven gift machine... love is for free and cannot be replaced by what ever gift you can come up with.
Thank you for the explanation. I love learning customs and traditions of other countries. I’m from the Czech Rep. and much like Austria we also have St. Nicholas who comes on the 5th of Dec, accompanied by an angel and a devil (like Krampus), the good and the bad. Children sing a song or recite a poem to St. Nicholaus and he asks them if they’ve been good and if the parents confirm, they will get small gifts. Well, it used to be some chocolates, fruits and nuts, maybe a small toy, because this is not the main gift-receiving day, that´s on Dec 24. But nowadays parents spoil the children with big expensive gifts and lots of them even on St. Nicholas Eve that I wonder what the kids get later on Christmas Eve when this is just the start (our gifts are brought by baby Jesus on Christmas Eve after a big family dinner). And of course if the children have been bad they only get coal or potatoes. And if they’ve been really bad the devil will put them in the sack and take them to Hell. But St . Nicholas has never let that happen yet 😉
Sint Maarten isn't really celebrated in the south of the Netherlands. In Brabant we have the American halloween, the start of Carnaval on 11-11, Sinterklaas and Xmas.
Toen mijn kinderen klein waren zette ze hun schoen altijd voor het raam, ze geloofden dat hij door de schoorsteen kwam: maar ze vroegen nooit waar de opening van de schoorsteen was🤣🤣🤣🤣. En op sinterklaasavond bonsde de buurman op de deur en legde de zak met cadeaus neer en rende dan hard weg .😛😛
Ja dat was hier ook het geval. Een jutezak met kadootjes. 😂
When you were bad or naughty you were sand back to Spain the bag (=zak) that carried the gifts at first. Millions of Dutch children grew up with this threatening aspect of Sinterklaas and I have never met a person who was traumatized because of it. Still these days children are considered to be too sensitive to deal with this ‘threat’ so the story of children being send back is hardly used anymore.
My dad is now 75 years old and to this day does not like Sinterklaas because when he was young his family put up this charade with a uncle dressed up as sinterklaas who put his father in the sack. The poor boy cried his eyes out that night. At the time his family wasn't the only one doing these kind of things, but by the time that I was young it really wan't a thing anymore.
In the past, children were also beaten by teachers at school. It's good that we have changed such things over time to more civilized forms. The same goes for old traditions like Sinterklaas, because believe me, children from America or other countries with a much more cheerful and milder figure like Santa Claus are really not less happy than Dutch children.
You forgot that "je de ROE krijgt" when you were "stout"...
@@AlexK-yr2th good point!
Zak is sack in English.
Every year they make an entire story and production to entertain the kids and keep things exciting - boat has issues, somebody is missing, wrong gifts were loaded, great book was misplaced, etc…and every year all ends up being fine in the nick of time. It’s pretty neat actually if you think about… it’s a cool tradition but for foreigners who didn’t really grow up with it t may seem a bit weird in some areas - there’s no bad intent behind it all…
I've never been so fortunate to get a free trip to Spain, but it used to be part of the Sinterklaas time. I think Christmas has changed a bit over the years, probably due to influence from the US. It used to be a pure family thing. First Christmas day was staying at home with the family and spending the time together. Usually some board games were being played, and a lot of talking about the past year and what happened to you and people around you. These days the gift thing seems to have shifted a bit more from Sinterklaas to Christmas, especially in families without any young children. Second Christmas day was more of visiting family (especially parents and grandparents). Christmas diner was often used to invite people like single aunts and uncles, to come over and spend the time together. At least these are my experiences. Could be totally different for other families. I think you've picked up a lot over the last 3 holiday seasons.
Dont listen to the complainers. You trying and learning is the main thing😊 yr one of my fave channels. ❤
Amen to that 👍😆
Actually, Tammy and Eric are very accurate on the sinterklaas tradition. 👍👍
In our house, my kids can put out there shoe every day when Sinterklaas is in the country. They only get a present 2 times a week though.
And I enjoy making the house look like we've had nightly visitors. Sometimes the Pete's have played some board games and left them lying around. They may have lefted dirty footprints around, eaten half of the carrot that was in the shoe. Or they have only put poems in the shoes, that will lead the kids to hidden presents.
On Sinterklaas evening, a neighbour bounces on our door and leaves the sack with presents.
Taking the kids back to spain is no longer a threat in most households. Pete's have also changed a lot in recent years, they finally found some good soap to wash their faces.
I love sinterklaas,I remember on the 5 december singing in front of the kachel,we were living obove our grandmother of 80 years old,we singing and than boem boem boem,omg there he was,we open the door and so manny pressents,how little did we know it was our grandmother whit her broom bumping on the sealing ,so no zwarte piet we found out years later stil love it.and I love the songs now playing in the stores
We had a Spainish neighbour who put the jute sack with presents in front of our door, hit the front door and window hard and the he ran home, two doors further. We ran to the door, our parents closed the curtains already a little before, and we went outside to see if we could see a Piet or de Si t somewhere on a roof. The good old 70's. Sinterklaas came to school, some Pieten stormed in, they threw candy all over the classroom floor and we stormed to them. The he took his big book and called the kids one by one to him. I did not end up in Spain. 😊
If you think dutch kids were scared by sinterklaas, check out krampus next
When I was in school Sinterklaas and a few Pieten visited my class. I'm not sure what was more terrifying: sitting on Sinterklaas' lap or the threat of being hit with "de roe", a bundle of twigs held by Zwarte Piet and reportedly used to discipline bad children. The big book in which Sinterklaas had accurate notes of all children's acts of naughtiness was also terrible.
I've never seen 'roe' or 'zak' being used in anger.
The figure of Santa Claus is a transformation of Sinterklaas (Sint Nicolaas). Christmas used to be more of a religious event and Sinterklaas the event where the children got their gifts. In the Big Book of Sinterklaas was written down how you had behaved the year round.
Nowadays, Christmas is becoming the gift event, mostly after the children got too big for the story of Sinterklaas. In my home I won't put up the Christmas tree before the 6th of December. I wait until Sinterklaas has left the country.
Santa is derived from Sinterklaas which was brought and celebrated by the Dutch after their arrival in the US.
The British colonies within the US mixed it with their tradition of Father Christmas.
Out of that mix, since 1773, we now have and know Santa Claus as the bringer of gifts.
With that out of the way, let's look at Sinterklaas.
It isn't solely Dutch as some believe, it is actually quite wide spread within Western Europe, and in Germany and Austria, we find the more original form of Sinterklaas accompanied by Krampus and or the Perchten.
It is neither solely Dutch nor just a children's celebration either, in essence, it is about fertility and transformation and is rooted in our pre-Christian pagan religion.
That religion is Yggdrasil, the Norse/Germanic tree of life.
Though the ecclesiastical power has tried to destroy all pagan traditions, it has survived in remote areas where the ecclesiastical power was limited or non existent.
A bit of symbolism.
Odin is often displayed as a one-eyed god with a spear, two black ravens (Huginn, thought and Muninn, memory) and two wolves (Geri, eagerness and Freki, miserliness).
The ravens fly across the nine worlds, and when they return, they tell Odin the news of the worlds.
In folklore tradition, the helpers of Sinterklaas find out who is good and bad, and thus Sinterklaas of course, has his big book with all the information on who was bad and who has been good.
The tree of life consists of the upper world (aces), the middle world (garden of the living), and the underworld (seeds or those not yet reborn or awakened)
Fruma jiuleis is old Gothic Germanic language that points to the time before Yule.
During this period, the gates of the upper world and underworld open up to the middle world, and gods from the upper world and underworld come to the middle world to prepare for the wild hunt.
The wild hunt is aimed at Fenrir (greed), which devours the sun.
In November, Sinterklaas comes to visit with his helpers, who are black or at least painted very dark.
Nothing to do with racism or the human race, the color black is symbolic for mystical, latent, or, to make it poetic, potential in the seed.
The chimney is the symbolic gateway to the upper world, and the water well is the symbolic gateway to the underworld.
The bag or basket is symbolic for a womb, i think you will start to see that the true meaning of it all is transformation, how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. :)
It is very bluntly written because i can't write a whole page or book here.
The candy in the baskets.
You'll find some similar symbolism in Germanic tales such as Hans en Grietje, after they defeat the witch (false self) - which they push into the oven and thus burn- they find pearls and gold, which is symbolic for insight, lessons of the soul, and purity of the soul.
Because the moon was leading in those ancient times with periods of one and a half moons from new to full or from full to new, there is no date for Yule.
A cyle of 8 moon periods with 12 nights complete the sun's year, those 12 nights were the period between the cycles and dedicated to Holda, goddess of the underworld.
Of course, we now know them as the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Hopefully i haven't made to many writting errors. :)
Belgium here. We also have Sinterklaas, but with very minor traditions. Our Sinterklaas has one Pete, rather than multiple. And our Sinterklaas gives us presents at 6 December, rather than the 5 December. But I digress.
You can compare Christmas here with Thanksgiving in the USA, when talking about the focus on gift giving and family.
In my family when I was a kid, Sinterklaas was the children's feast, with lots of toys, while at Christmas small non-toy gifts were given, like books or a sweater.
I don't know how much it's still the case since 30 years ago, but at least back then, in November or end October, toy stores printed their catalogue as an advertisement folder, so parents could give this folder to their kids and ask them "What do you want Sinterklaas to bring you this year?"-with lots of time left to do the shopping for their kids for the morning of the 6th December.
Other countries have their own variants. If you're not shocked enough from the tradition of black Pete, look at southern Germany for example. Look up Krampus; you might think it's Halloween rather than Christmas/Sinterklaas!
About Santa's drinking problem:
Growing up in the UK, everybody left a glass of sherry on the coffee table for Santa. (Together with a mince pie and a carrot for the reindeer.)
That's a lot of sherry before he even hits Ireland or the US.
I'm not sure he should have been in charge of a sleigh after the first two houses.
(And who knows what he was knocking back in Germany, or even further east!)
BTW i might have overlooked comments about it but for our family there was a tree rule. The day after Sinter Klaas, the Christmas tree came, and the tree vanished after the 6th of January. And still to this day this is the case for me. I was told this is a catholic thing. Oh and Christmasdinner is just a tiny bit more expensive/bigger than any other dinner. Instead of buying 3full shoppingcarts at AH and Dirk for just 2 day's. 😊😂
Nice video guyz. Nothing much to add to the other comments. Your questions (and answers) here, cover the subject and explain it quite clearly for all people that wonder about it.
Better be prepared for St Maarten first...look it up in wikipedia :) November 11, a lot of small kids will ring your door bell if you leave the lights on near the front door.
Christmas is here in the Nertherlands for people who believe in God. They celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Sinterklaas isn't the Dutch Santa Claus. Santa Claus is the American Sinterklaas.
"You're going in the bag!" Was a very effective threat for a month or two before december. And the Christmassy Santa tradition is definately copied from SInterklaas. (remember the tradition was there before coca-cola, and it's because your dutch ancestors) And of course Sinterklaas AND Christmas themselves are some Catholic perversion of a Germanic tradition.
I hope he puts me in his bag LOL it is nice and warm in spain
Beside from being abducted to spain in a sack you also would get a beating with a bundle of twigs by Pete.
We were not only send to Spain in the sack,we were even told that Sinter Klaas was going to make pepernoten out of us😂
Tammy is spot on with sinterklaas and Christmas! Well done Tammy. The thing nowadays though there are a lot of families who's children have grown up and have switched from sinterklaas gifts to Christmas gifts. For me personally, that is the part i don't like as for me Christmas has everything to do with the birth of crist and nothing to do with gifts! But that is my personal opinion. People tend to forget what xmas is all about because of all these gifts
Haha de zak van sinterklaas is just a fun thing. I experienced it as a thing that never happened of course but i have always seen it as a sort of fantasy. It greatly depends on how the parents bring it to their kids! I was never worried about it.
Great video i love to see the fun you 2 have. It's so funny...and i admire your knowledge about the Dutch culture. Both of you sound as real Dutchies. So nice to have watched you over the last 2 years. Well done you two❤.
The Sinterklaas Journaal (news) Started in 2000, a year before that a program called 'De Club van Sinterklaas' air on a commercial station. It started a new trend where you'd see Petes and Sinterklaas on a daily basis in all kinds of adventures.
Before that we hardly saw the Sint and his Petes in anything. We would not see them in the days leading up to the arrival. Maybe all you'd see was an image of his boat in a promo for a few seconds a few days before the arrival somewhere around the TV-programmes Sesame Street, Jeugdjournaal and Klokhuis (80s & 90s). And then: BAM, he was here on Saturday. But you still would not see him much. Sinterklaas and/or Petes would make surprise appearances on maybe Sesame Street, a quiz, perhaps a talkshow, maybe a tv-movie.
So they were always really mysterious characters. Kids that grew up after 2000 have been been used to seeing them all the time, every day from the moment they got home from school.
22:22 🤣Even worse, Sinetreklaas needed more helpers, so a teacher from Amsterdam came up with the idea in 1890, somewhere, of Black Petes with a rod (dried branches) to keep the children in line and supposedly would hit them when they were naughty, and if they were too naughty they indeed had to go in the bag to Spain.
Yes totally true. I remember being scared when i was a little girl that i would be hit and taken to spain in the bag that sinterklaas used to give sweet kids presents.
The traditions of Sinterklaas and Christmas blended by the people on journeys over seas into Santa Clause. Just to keep that tradition alive. They both are called Saint Nicholas, have their helpers and move at lightspeed to deliver gifts. Anyway the first signs of the holiday season are the Sinterklaas treats, followed by the toystore wishbooks (toy catalogues?) Wich my dad used to call "De Gekmakertjes" (the crazymakers)
'De Gekmakertjes' - wat leuk. 😊
Did you know that at offices and working places often Sinterklaas is celebrated for the children of the employees? It’s before his b-dat and in daytime with a visit by Sinterklaas, his big book with everything he knows about the kids, sweets, presents, singing. etc.
For years I tried to get a free ride to Spain , never happened , the poems he wrote for me were getting harsher every year though 😅
“To the memory of St. Nicholas. May the virtuous habits and simple manners of our Dutch ancestors be not lost in the luxuries and refinements of the present times” Dr David Hosack, New York Historical Banquet 1809. Sadly it was in vain, it currently is just that in the US. Because the Americans saw a nice Dutch tradition, embraced it, improved it and then commercialized it. Washington Irving featured Saint Nicholas prominently in this satirical history of the New Amsterdam Dutch-American ethnic identity. Altering the saint’s appearance from a tall, somber, commanding European image, Irving reinvented Saint Nicholas as a short, stout, merry, pipe-smoking Dutchman dressed in traditional colonial attire. In 1871 Thomas Nast, a German-born New Yorker and Harpers Weekly cartoonist created the ancestor of the current Coca Cola Santa Claus to the image of Irvings creation and his friend Moore’s description of the traditions, which were based on a Dutch neighbor and the Knickerbocker’s history of New York. The name evolved from Saint Nicholas to Sinterklaas (to difficult for Americans to pronounce), to Saint Claas (1828) and finally Santa Claus. Source: New York Public Library.
Sinterklaas was a catholic bishop, so not married. Santaclaus came to the USA by Dutch immigrants in the 17th century. Coca Cola changed the story in the 1930 in the present American caricature of the original true story of Nicolas of Myra.
siterklaas has a magik ring also his pietten when jou dont haf a schimi hi opens de door whit his magik ring and also the pietten
The getting put in the sack back to Spain is quite recent thing, originally you would get punished with "Roe" (a bundle of long twigs) if you were naughty.
The large sack at the front was how my family did it until all of the chidren were old enough, when the adults tell it that's all fake. From then on, my family switched to the surprise version, you would still have a sack but through a lottery, you buy a present (under an agreed value) for the person that you got and often a poem/rhyme with it. (Often, these are very light-hearted, poking fun or giving some compliments)
For the presents before the 5th of December, you can technically put your shoe at the hearth/heater everyday. However, from my experience, that doesn't mean that you would get presents every day, sometimes it's just some peper/kruidnoten.
And yeah, the origin story of Sinterklaas/Saint Nicolas is that he came from Turkey, Mira specifically and headed up to Europe. Generally, he is considered the Saint of a lot of things like normal, (sailors, prostitues and more), but his main domain was marriage. If you wanted to marry, but you didn't have the money, then the story goes that he would throw you the gold for the marriage. (I believe this is where all the throwing of the candy and peper/kruidnoten comes from.)
Technically speaking, Saint Nicolas isn't exactly a Dutch thing, next to the carribean and Belgium also celebrate it. (Although, in Belgium he is even more stately presented, due to Belgium being almost completely catholic.) These countries also do have the Pete thing.
However, Germany (I think Austria and Switserland partly as well) have also Saint Nicolas, but instead of mulitple petes, it's Krampus next to him. More of a demon companion that would ring a bell if you have been naughty.
whould not call it quite recent i heard it as a kid and i was born in the 80s
Jullie video's worden steeds leuker.. ga asjeblieft zo door.
Watch kraomschudden in Mariaparochie by herman Finkers and you now about dutch xmass
😂
De KERSTMAN does those things here also in Dec. Kerstmis. The Kerstman also is an older tradition than American. All European countries got some little twists but in the core have the same Christian fantasm. Which root in deeper older thing than Christian lores and traditions, history.
Some fun extra "facts" (no sinterklaas experience is the same): - most often parents allow their children to set their shoes once every 2-3-4-5 days or so, it differs. Why? Well not to spoil the kids or as parents often call it "not to overwork Sinterklaas" like you said, but also well; usually they get 1 or 2 small toys and some candy. It's difficult to find 30+ different kinds of toys as well, parents just see what they can get and divide it over some sessions of "shoe setting", this usually is the bottleneck for how often they can set their shoes.
- besides from singing, it is also recommended to leave a snack for the horse. A small bowl of milk or water, some carrots perhaps. And ofcourse it's magic for the kids when they see it's gone in the morning :D
- The horse sometimes get's a new name. Ozosnel (oh so quickly) is the new horse since 2019, when the old one called Amerigo retired. Not even sure what's real and what's fantasy, but I'm assuming it's just another added story to the myth.
- Our Southern neighbours in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium (Vlaanderen) call the horse "Slechtweervandaag" which means "Bad weather today", it got it's name from a mishap/confusion in a conversation XD (typical Flemish/Dutch humor aimed for kids)
- Sinterklaas indeed does arrive by steamboat coming from Madrid! But Madrid doesn't have any canals/lakes/seas to which it is connected on which boats can travel! Now that is magical!
- Since a couple of years there is this "Sinterklaasjournaal" (Sinterklaas news), where the entire cast of Pieten are played by famous Dutch people. Children don't notice, Adults love to spot who's who. Has become a great tradition. The show is connected to the official national TV-broadcast of Sinterklaas arriving in the Netherlands.
- Since the Sinterklaasjournaal exists; every year the writers of the show come up with this major disaster. The boat sank. They left all the presents in Spain. The list of who gets what is lost. The storage room for the presents in NL gets flooded etc etc. Slightly scaring kids with the idea they might not get anything is kind of part of it. Although in recent years there have been some parents who were concerned for the mental health of their kids (lol).
- The big day / 5th december / all the big presents... well I'll describe 2 options; the way it goes with kids, or just adults.
With kids it most often is done on the actual 5th of december but some parents might delay for the weekend because of circumstances, but generally the younger the kids are the more likely it's done on the 5th. Sometimes other family members and their children will join. Often one of the elders will go outside with a huge jute bag filled with gifts, leave it on the porch and bang the door like crazy and run off, the parents then say "who could that be?!?!" kids get excited etc you get the gig. The kids usually don't notice who's missing, or the person might already came back through the back or something. 80% of the gifts are for the kids, the parents will often buy some smaller ones for eachother or themselves. The parents might write a couple of poems (usually with jokes and naughty puns or little jabs in them).
Without kids..... the entire charade gets easier, more comedy enters; people can make surprise-gifts for eachother which can be anything from an elaborate self-made box which resembles something the receiving party likes, or it can be a box filled with slime and a present in the middle, or any other joke or puzzle to get to your gift. Often the poems return.
There is a 3rd more casual way of doing it, often done with class mates or collegues from work: everybody buys 1-2-3 small gifts and then they play a game with a dice where for example throwing a 1 = pick a gift, 2= unwrap a gift you have, 3 = pass gift to the left, 4 = pass to the right etc etc, and the game stops when the pile of gifts is empty.
- Christmas! Some families do celebrate it with gifts, a lot don't. And like you said; because we have two days we can devide it more easily between family and friends, or family from your side and the others.
- And finally; I've never been sent to spain, but the threat felt very real! lol. I do remember when I was very young and we were celebrating it with older cousins, my parents thought it would be funny to give me a big bag of salt as a present. I was so emberassed! I was convinced I have been good, why would Sinterklaas do this to me? Cousins and elders all laughing etc. Yeah, didn't like it, was very confused, but my mom was kind enough to tell me something along the lines of "oh don't worry honey, I will just mix it when washing clothes, Sinterklaas won't notice" which made it a lot better!
Sorry for all the text, got a bit excited because of the great video I guess! ;-)
In a few weeks The Sint will arrive in Gorinchem, just 30 km from your home. So come and see.
Greets from Gorinchem
I also remember from 35-40 years ago the Bart Smit catalogus, and writing a "verlanglijstje".
And you know the season is here when the kruidnootjes start showing up.
Maybe you didn't know it yet, but Santa Claus was created by us Dutch and derived from, yes, Saint Nicholas.
Saint Nicholas Sometime between 270 and 280, Saint Nicholas was born. He was fond of children, gave gifts to the poorest among them, and died in 343 on December 6. Then the story of the origin of Santa Claus is synchronized with that of Saint Nicholas.
In the seventeenth century, there was a dividing line between Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus. Dutch migrants bring the feast of Sinterklaas with them to the U.S. However, the Americans felt that they already had too many holidays in the last months of the year (October- Halloween/ 4th Thursday of November- Thanksgiving), and then the birth of Jesus in December. They also thought the concept of gift-giving was more in line with December 25.
Coca Cola.
In 1626, Saint Nicholas received his first statue in the American city that later became known as New York. It is Dutch sailors who make the statue. They were sailors of a shipping fleet that was led by the 'Good Lady' who had Saint Nicholas as figurehead. In 1773, an American newspaper, the New York City Gazette, wrote about Saint Nicholas for the first time. He is called St. A Claus here. Santa Claus is given a face in the years 1863 and 1886, thanks to the political cartoonist Thomas Nast. In 1931, Santa Claus was born as he is still known today in the 21st century. The art director Haddon Sundblom draws Santa Claus for a big Coca Cola commercial. Santa Claus then spread to Europe, where Great Britain was the first to take over Santa Claus on and around Christmas. 😊
christmaholic.nl/hoe-sinterklaas-santa-claus-werd/
For me the season begins right after my birthday at the end of oktober; Until then nothing that has to do with Sinterklaas is allowed in my house. After that it is already quite soon until Sinterklaas arrives and December 5th. Guidelines are: no Christmas tree until Sinterklaas is gone though less and less people follow that principle anymore. On the topic of Sinterklaas, you guys should try and get your hands on the red label covered movie called: Sint. It's a Dutch movie about Sinterklaas by director Dick Maas. It's a classic Dutch horror movie on the subject and is now basically banned from all television stations and streaming services because of the whole zwarte Piet debacle. The one with the red cover has the English subtitles with it, so that's why i recommend that one.
Depending on how you where raised, Christmas can also start here at Christmas Eve/Kerstavond. Folks that hold the Christian belief typically go to church that evening for the Kerst Mis, a special Mis to remember the birth of Christ. I was raised in a Christian household but as an adult am no longer a believer. I do however enjoy the moment that is Christmas Eve and i tend to spend it alone watching the movie A Christmas Carol, or something in that direction. When all children are over the age of Sinterklaas, the whole presents thing in usually shifted to Christmas day on the 25th.
After Christmas, on december 31st it's time burn that Christmastree in the street and gather around with your neighbors and light all the fireworks everyone has to celebrate the old year and enter the new year with a bang! And champagne. And probably a hangover Januari 1st ^^
For me now each year I go photograph the intocht in my city (Gouda) and maybe in other cities to. And then on Pakjesavond we (me and my sister, the rest of the family is death) get together and go fonduen. And also since a few years we go to friends the weekend before Pakjesavond to celebrate it with there kids. Oh and I almost each year watch the movie Sint. And eat at least 1 chocolate kruidnoot bag. But that's all I do with Sinterklaas. Since the zwartepietendiscussie it's not has been as much fun anymore to celebrate it.
Christmas however is a whole different thing. Around november I visit basically all Intratuin's in the neighboorhood to see the christmas decorations there. From around december I start also photographing other christmas decorations outside. And around the second week or third we have the world famous Kaasjesavond/Gouda bij Kaarslicht. Also my christmas tree has been up the whole year already. And I watch quite a lot of christmas movies. (The best still is Christmas Chronicles 1 and 2). And the whole month there is the Radio 10 top 4000. If not we listen to Skyradio Christmas station. Also in december there are a lot of fireworks shows, which I visit. And then on christmas itself me and my sister eat very nice food. And on the second xmas day we go to the same friends as mentioned before. Sometimes we even have a 3rd day to eat more delicious breakfast and diner.
In my childhood the thing that triggered my "Sinterklaas-feeling" was when the pepernoten became available in the shops. (Usually around the beginning of november). Now they're already in the shops at the end of august! I guess everything changes to .... money.
Christmas here, traditionally: 1st day: church (as it's a Christian holiday - and holy day) and the 2nd day it's visiting family (grandparents mostly). Nowadays the American way of celebrating Christmas is growing in popularity, because then people can just wrap up a gift and leave it at that. At Sinterklaasfeest there often need to be a rhyme with it and the gift needs to be concealed as something else (called a surprise, which is in this case not an English word).
I like the video! but eh ... don't apologize for saying what you think. We're Dutch, remember. 😉
Santa Claus started out as an amalgam of Dutch Sint Nicolaas and English Father Christmas. So yes, he's part Dutch.
The figure of Sinterklaas is based on a bishop of Myra in modern day Turkey. When Myra was islamified, christians 'saved' his remains and brought them to Bari, on the East coast of modern Italy, which was then part of the Spanish empire. (In recent years Turkey has tried to turn what's left of the church into a touristic site, and has found that the crypt, and the bodies burried therein, are undisturbed, but that a nameless but opulent grave above ground had been smashed open and emptied. So whosever remains were brought to Bari, they were probably not Sint Nikolaas'.)
In the Netherlands we celebrate Sinterklaasavond (Sint Nikolaas' Eve) on the 5th. In Belgium they celebrate Sinterklaas on the 6th. There are a few places where they celebrate Sint Maarten in stead. To avoid confusion, Sint Maarten wears a white mantle.
The key word for Christmas is Christmas diner.
I'm glad you're both calling the kruidnootjes by their proper name. Too many people confuse them with pepernoten.
Both Sinterklaas and Kerstmis (Christmas) were superimposed by the church on older traditions. Sinterklaas retains elements of both the Wild Hunt, which had Deities and ancestors riding in the sky, doling out justice to the industrious and the lazy (The saint's 'schimmel' - white horse - is considered by many to be directly derived from Odin's horse Sleipnir) and Krampus (Zwarte Piet). Although the Wild Hunt seems to be predominantly Northern European, Krampus and his kin seem to be a Eurasian phenomena. They go by different names, and their attire varies, but save one exception, they're always black and they're always accompanied by a white bearded wise man.
Kerstmis, in turn, has been associated with winter solstice, Yul, and the Slaughter of the Pig. With the final harvest done, and the abundance of summer behind them, people slaughtered their four legged recycling plant, that had been fed with scraps and leftovers. This was cause for a feast, since not all of the pig could be preserved and most of it had to be eaten straight away.
the debate around Zwarte Piet comes back every year, most places replaced the black (zwart) by other colors, patterns or "soot smudges"
National Arrival should be on the 19th around midday on NPO 1 (tv) and some radio stations, after this all other cities and villages can have there own arrival party and shopping malls/streets will become lively with bands playing sinterklaas songs (switching to Christmas after the 5th)
Think of it this way we always had Sinterklaas, your Coca Cola made him into their version, Santa Clause (multiple references are made that it's the same guy -like in Disney's Santa Clause (where Tim Allen Identifies himself as Santa Clause as know all over the world even referring to himself as Christenkind which would translate into child of Christ) and Netflix' Christmas Chronicles when Kurt Russel identifies him self in multiple languages etc.)
as result we now have the luxury (not only) in The Netherlands of 2 visits, but to us Santa is like a brother to Sint.... and over the years it kinda evolved into Sinterklaas is mainly for the kids and Xmas/Santa is more for adult or older kids and often more about appreciation than materialism ... sure you can give an expensive gift, but a box of chocolates and a hug often gets you pretty far 😉
That's what my parents told me through out the year, at times when I was annoying (according to them); That if I didn't stop immediately, I'd be off in a sack to Spain. Never took it serious though. But yeah, the jute coalsack filled with presents was always at the front door, after some heavy banging on the front window. And when you were distracted by that, it suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, rained pepernoten, kruidnoten and schuimpjes around you. Most times neighbours where helping each other with the whole operation. But that was in the seventies. I can't tell you how it works nowadays.
I don't think children nowadays are threatened to be obducted by Zwarte Piet to Spain to work there for Sinterklaas as a slave never to return again. I was told that story in the sixties, but it seems to me a bit out of fashion. As for the shoe setting, I would like to add, that on average you do it twice from the time Sinterklaas arrives to the 5th december. Usually you put a carrot in the shoe for the horse and sing a song. What you get is a bit of sweets, or maybe a small play car to play with. Nothing fancy. But, I had instances myself that my shoe was empty because I had bad behavior. A stern warning for eternal slavery! Redeem yourself! Usually children are told at the age of 7 that Sinterklaas is a myth but they have to keep it a secret for the younger children. So the fear was gone for eternal slavery too. My mother replaced that with the threat to give me to the ragman (that at that time came regularly in the street and was not a pleasant sight).
Nowadays Zwarte Piet is a friendly figure, helping out a senile old bishop and loving children unconditionally, even the bad ones. He may still be stern, but he won't hurt you anymore. I remember I was not bothered by the slavery part. I was bothered by the fact that Zwarte Pieten were everywhere, knew everything all year long and briefed it to Sinterklaas. Even in summer I cannot count the times that I searched my bedroom to see if Zwarte Piet was there to observe me. I was not really afraid, but anxious about that. I really wanted to outsmart Zwarte Piet and catch him in the act!
And don't start me about discrimination of black people because of Zwarte Piet. Yes, he was a slave, but well taken care of, I was told. And I never, ever associated Black Pete with a richly pigmented dark skinned human being. Zwarte Piet was not human, he could do things nobody could, hearing everything enter millions of homes etc. It was indeed a (dark) fairy. Those who associate it with humans do not understand the myth of Zwarte Piet.
In this film Sinterklaas is compared to Santa Clause often by referring to the 1960's. In those days, nobody knew what Halloween was. The Catholics had "Alllerheiligen" and "Allerzielen" on november 1st and 2nd but this was only a religious event, they attended mass and visited graveyards and put flowers on to the graves. Nor did the Dutch had a feast like Thanksgiving day. No turkey, no foodball, no family and off course no black Friday. The Protestant part of the population had a kind of thanksgiving day called: "Dankdag voor het gewas" but also this day was a pure religious event with a lot of worshipping and hours and hours in the church. Just like the two feasts i've mentioned, Christmas was also a pure religious happening. My Catholic father attended mass at least two or three times on december the 25th. (at midnight, early in the morning and in the afternoon (LOF)). And because it was little Jesus birthday families gathered and had a lot of festive meals and family diners. (after returning from the midnight mass (nachtmis) with poultry and meatloaf. A scrumptious family breakfast with all kind of sweet treats and the family diner, often with turkey, rabbit or roasted beef. But in that era no presents were exchanged. On november 11th the protestant children, in the evening, did have a kind of trick or treat, going from door to door with a lantern and begging for sweets because of "Sint Maarten" (Saint Martin) who accoding to the myth, shared his robe with a beggar. (strange because the protestants don't acknowledge saints). The Catholic part of the Netherlands on the 11th is preparing for the Carnavals-season (starting November 11th until Mardi Gras 7 weeks in advance of Eastern). Catholic children went from door to door begging for sweets on January the 6th. (driekoningen) dressed up as the three wise men and singing a song. So Sinterklaas was the only feast where receiving presents and gifts was the core business. The start of the holiday season was the arrival of Sinterklaas from the '60 on broadcasted on TV. And during this broadcast Sinterklaas proclaimed that children were allowed tot place their shoe at the fireplace that evening (often filled with a carrot for the horse and a drawing for the Sint but no other treats like cookies or milk). The next time children placed their shoe at the fireplace was on December the 5th. Just like Santa, Sinterklaas delivered the gifts at night and in the morning the presents were exposed around the fireplace. And.. adults had their own way of celebrating Sinterklaas by having a "Surpriseavond" In those days knowledge of the English language was poor and almost nobody knew that "Surpris" ment "unexpected" Adults on the 5th exchanged presents often wrapped or packed in a funny way (for instance, if someone liked to cook, the present was wrapped in a cardboard cooks hat) and the "surprise" had to be accompanied by a poem, a rhyme. often witty or even malevolent emphasizing the awkwardness or queer character of the receiver. Some favorite wrappings were: presents looking like a Sunday roast made from cottonwool and melasse or looking like a turd made of 'peperkoek' (a kind of gingerbread with melasse and spices). To get to the real present it was a messy and sticky business. During the 70's it became more and more normal that also the children participated in this "Surprise avond" and so the main event shifted from the morning of december the 6th to the evening of the 5th called "pakjesavond" On "pakjesavond" the presents could be delivered by someone dressed up as Zwarte Piet (a blackface helper) or even delivered by Sinterklaas himself. This was quite expensive, so often a neighbour was asked to place the presents at the front door and knock on the door or window when the presents had arrived. Now days pakjesavond is by far more important then december the 6th. Times they are changing! So is luckily the perception of Zwarte Pieten, now only called Pieten, Sinterklaas helpers. In the 18th century almost the entire population of the Netherlands was white. Except on carnivals as a kind of rarity black people were exposed. In that time there was no association with the blackface character "zwarte Piet" and discrimination of black an colored people. Sinterklaas came from Spain and in the 8th century blackamoor (Arab) tribes invaded the south of Spain. Covering your face with black shoe polish of charcoal was an easy way to disguise anybody so that children were unable to recognize their uncle, their neighbour or their teacher as being Sinterklaas helper. Also in the 18th, the 19th and early 20th century this black helper had to scare children so that they would behave good. (not naughty but nice). And children were threatened that they would be taken (in a jute bag) to Spain if they didn't obey. Today it is unacceptable to dress up as a (dumb) blackface. The Dutch population is more and more mixed and no one can deny that Zwarte Piet is discriminating and hurting black and colored people. Only some ultra conservative right wing extremists claim the right to dress up like zwarte piet because of a so called tradition, mostly in retarded communities like the former island Urk of peasants villages like Staphorst. After struggling several years tot find a plausible alternative for the blackface Zwarte Piet, trying "rainbow Pete's and even "stroopwafelpieten" now there seems to be a consensus about the Roetveegpiet, a helper with black strikes on his face because he has to clime up and down the chimneys. Since the turn of the century American influence and commercial interest changed the holiday season in the Netherlands. Halloween has been introduced and gaining popularity, Black Friday offers (somehow with Dutch practicality changed to "Black-Friday-Week") is advertised on radio and television and Sinterklaas is downsized to an event with small presents while de Kerstman (Santa Claus) is donating the big presents. Dutch children are lucky, they get presents on the 5th / 6th of december and on Christmas eve of Christmas day. Unlike religion in the States, Christians have become a small minority in the Netherlands. Therefor Christmas has become less and less a religious feast but a feast of family getting together and enjoying luxury, gifts but most of all food and drink. Some gifts are still typical for Sinterklaas mostly sweets and pastry. A popular gift is still the "Banketletter" a puff pastry filled with an almond/sugar dough shaped like an alphabet-letter like "S" (Sint) of "M" (Mother) or an alphabet-letter made of chocolate, often the initial of the receivers first name. An other typical Sinterklaas-treat is Taai Taai, a very chewy anise seed cookie shaped as a doll and the famous "speculaaspop" a large cookie shaped as a doll, somewhat gingerbread-like but with a lot more and a variety of spices. And then off cours there are "pepernoten" the can be cubical and made of almost the same dough als "taai taai" of made of the same dough as the speculaaspop shaped as small buttons. Together with sweets made of foamed sugar in several shapes and flavours, the mix of "pepernoten" and "schuimpjes" and "suikerwerk" is called "strooigoed" and the Pieten trow that mis into the audience or hide that, as the song tells us in a corner (in één of andere hoek). As a character Sinterklaas is not only less jolly and more stately compared to Santa he is als less forgiving and less careful an much more vindicatory. Santa is making a list every year and checking it twice to find out who is naughty of nice! The next year he starts all over again making a new list and checking it again. Not so Sinterklaas, he writes everything in a large book ("het grote boek") doesn't check it even once and brings back that book year after year so if a child has had a bad year it is noted every year since... I suppose my childhood mistakes are still to be found on the pages of 1961until 1967 when I as a six year old stopped believing and became a devoted atheïst.
The story that I've heard is that Sint moved to New Amsterdam/York with the Dutch founders.
You Americans promptly cloned him and Coca Cola offered the clone a permanent position after finding him in the gutter in the Bowery.
(That drink problem again!)
Just sayin! No offence intended. Not trying to be controversial here!
We celebrate Sinterklaas with gifts and Christmas with our families. Dinner together etc. No presents. But some of my friends celebrate with presents at Christmas, particularly when the children grow up and no longer believe Sinterklaas exists. I like the tradition though, so even now that my kids are 19 and 21, we still have presents at Sinterklaas. The Sinterklaas horse used to be named Amerigo by the way. Since 2019 it is Ozosnel.
The Sinterklaas celebration is a mixture of different cultures and religions. A lot of asspects of Sinterklaas himself are based on the germanic pagan god Odin - Wodan. Wodan is decribed as a tall man with white beard, a spear and a hat. Wodan rides in the sky with a eigthlegged horse Sleipnir, Sinterklaas rides on the roofs.
Saint Nicholas was the bishop of Myra, which is now Izmir, Turkey. But during his life that was part of the Roman Empire. He is a patron of children because of a miracle he performed. But he is also patron saint of seafarers and harbour cities like Amsterdam, therefor the steam ship.
Children threatened to taken away in the sack, was a thing. The Pieten would listen if children would behave well. Wodan had two ravens Hugin and Munin who would tell him what was happening in the world. I think Sinterklaas apologized for taking children away a year ago, if I remember it right?
Presents were delivered in a burlap sack, with a knock on the door. I remember my older brother getting all worked up. ´This year I am going to find out!` and sprinting to the front door when the door bell rung. ;-) He or we never found out.
Tammy, ´o zo snel´ just means ´oh so fast´, and is a line in a song. I don´t remember it having a name. It was called schimmel after its colour: gray horse.
Christmas in our family was more about the birth of Jesus. 24th we went to evening church. 25th We went to church, sang psalms etc, went home and came together with a lot of family with a big familydinner. Then church again. 2nd day, 26th we visited our grandparents and when the 27th fell on a sunday we called it 3rd Christmasday and went on familywalks in the snow, yeah longggg time ago. It was all about Christ and family, no presents.😊
Love how you guy's dive into the Dutch traditions, foods, and way of life. But this comparison doesn't work. Because they are two different things. I mean that we too have Santa Claus but he's called the "kerstman" and the whole christmas story. And before that we have Sinter klaas which is not connected to Santa Claus but is a seperate "party". As soon as he arrives children can place there shoes at a fireplace or whatever and get a little present (mostly some chocolate or other small candy) and at his birthday (5 december) it's called "pakjesavond" (evening of presents) the children get more and bigger gifts (toys, games, ect). After that he leaves back to spain and we prepare for christmas same as in the states. So children in Holland have two seperate times for joy and presents. So stop being bad or you go into the zak (sack) and you'll be taken to spain. Keep up the fun vids. :P
When you wish you should go to one of the Sinterklaas arrival parties. Almost every year we are watching from my sisters home along the Amstel River in Amsterdam, with hot chocolate and many special St Klaas treats. Although the kids are now getting a bit too big, it's still a fun tradition. At about the 5th of December they'll exchange gifts and poems and at some houses also surprise gifts (you'll have to search a bit for your gift). It's a bit like a Piñata.
Adults will mostly get chocolate or simple gifts. With Christmas gifts for the adults are a bit more luxurious and useful, like perfume, jewelry, clothes etc. And the first day is mostly reserved for close family, the second day may vary from family to family. Depending on tradition.
So the tradition has developed in different lines, but your Santa Claus started as our Dutch Sinterklaas in the 17th century in New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony. Over time Saint Niclous/Sinterklass merged with other traditions and influences of the Brits, German and Scandinavian immigrants who had their own version of Christmas tradition. And then Coca Cola came in the 1930's and the whole thing became Santa, just one big commercial and marketing thing.
And now even worse: our Sinterklaas looks more and more like the American Santa Claus and our tradition has also become more and more a big marketing tool.
And about that other thing: After more then two decades of very aggressive discussion in our society about "Black Piet/Zwarte Piet" it seems to settle in most parts to the Netherlands. It's now just Piet and Piet can be coloured in any colour or just with some black dust from the chimney. The parts of the country where they still hang on to the real black faces are the very Christian parts (Bible belt) or very rural parts, so where people need more time to get the point. At the end traditions are not frozen in time, they always develop and change, so this one will also.
Ok, about the punishment of the children who were bad. Mostly it was when Sinterklaas would visit the school. Then the big book came out and everybody got judged. If you were a little bad, Sinterklaas would say: do you promise to be good from now on? Or do you want a beating with the roede, that is a bundle of twigs. Pieten usually cary them. If you were very bad, the choice could be Spain or be good. Even teachers get judged.
About pakjesavond, that is when the big sack of presents would be at the door, it is an arrangement between neighbours. You get the sack from the place were the parents hid them, take it to the door, while the parents distract the kids by singing, hit the window with a roede and run and hide! Hahaha, great fun. I have done it a couple of times and it gives you a great relationship with your neighbours also. This was in my childhood here in the eastern part of the Netherlands. I hope you understand it a bit better now. You got of easy… 😏😉
Greetings and ajuus, 🙋🏽♂️🇳🇱🌮
First sign of Sinterklaas arriving would be the toy store catalogus arriving mostly mid October. But that was all toys.... And making a list. And hanging on to it, because you either had to hand deliver at an intocht or put in your shoe.
Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands by steamboat on the first Saturday after Saint Martinsday (Sint Maarten). Which is November 11th. In 2023 that will be the 18th. That's the "landelijke intocht" (national parade) and will be broadcasted on tv by the Sinterklaas Journaal. (That is a relatively new thing, when I was a kid in the 80s we only had 2 moments where we saw Sinterklaas on tv: intocht and a visit to the Dutch Sesamestreet on december 5th).
Upon arriving, at the end of the broadcast, Sinterklaas will say that we are all alowed to put out our shoes that night. Usually the Pieten will tell the parents what nights to put out the shoes, it's not all nights until december 5th. For my kids we used the calendar from the Sinterklaasjournaal website to mark the nights they could pit out their shoes.
You sing the songs to let Sint and Piet know you appreciate them. And you can put a nice drawing, letter, wishlist, a carrot for the horse (this one is called Ozosnel, Tammy was right, but when I was a kid it was called Americo, but that horse died), hay for the horse, water for the horse or a sugar cube for the horse in your shoe. The next morning the Pieten will have collected all the stuff (via the chimney if your house has one) and either put in a small present "schoencadeau" or candy in your shoe. Sometimes a Piet or even Sinterklaas wrote an answer to your letter.
Our shoes were placed on the stairs to rhe attic as our hous didn't had a fireplace so Piet used our roofwindow.
Next to the national intocht, Sint also has his own intocht in each village and city. Those by the water usually have him arrive by boat and greeted by the mayor, but my town had him arrive by train. There is a little parade were the Pieten give candy and the kids give drawings and wish lists.
Usually there is some appearance in a theather in the weeks before pakjesavond and Sint and Piet usually also visit on schools, sport clubs and workplaces.
The main day, december 5th, no more shoes required. The presents arrive in a sack by the door, usually just when dad has a bathroom break as you are all singing. But sometimes they get handdelivered by some Pieten and at my grandparents even by Sinterklaas himself with Pieten.
It's my favorite holliday. And this year will be my first as a mom of kids who know how it works so mommy can play Piet again.
How do children sleep at night? You should brush up on European folklore and fairy tales. Our children aren't little pussies that get scared over every little thing. We tell them scary stories from very early one hehe :D
Christmas in the USA has always been about the big corporations. It was invented by coca cola and has very little to do with actual birth of Christ as we celebrate it here. Same for Halloween. Which is Samhain in the Celtic lands (Ireland/Scotland) and some parts of the Nordic countries. the USA Halloween is just a watered down bastardized version. Personally I find it very annoying to see actual European festivities and (religious)rituals being butchered like that. Its very disrespectful even.
Lol St Nicolas needs Pete to remind him...because he lacks a wife? I dare to say that he can give away so many gifts each year, because he doesn't have a wife that throws his money down the drain :D Also religious figures in the olden days weren't allowed to get married. so makes sense he doesn't have a wife.
Sinterklaas Journaal is for the children. So every year they make a different story to make it fun and interesting for the children. The boat sinking last year was just one of those silly story arcs. The children get the gifts either in a sack he hangs. Or he actually visits the house, usually an uncle that dresses up, to come inside. They then knock absurdly loudly on the doors, the door gets opened a little bit, then the pete's throws kruidnoten and candy into the living room, then sinterklaas and the pieten enter the room. At my work, at a sporthall, my manager dresses up as Sint and we then have lots of children come in with music and stuff.
Yup if you're a bad kid you get een "Roe" so your parents can spank you. If you're really terrible you get taken away for punishment. If you think this is bad... you should hear about some folklore stories we tell our kids that'll do much worse to kids.
Another saying: "Wat niet weet, wat niet deert."
That kinda explains it, I guess.
It means: You don't have to bother about things you don't know about.
Remember, we're talking small kids here.
The Sinterklaasfeest is so old. If you go to the Rijksmuseum , you will find the painting Sinterklaasfeest from Jan Steen from the year 1665
There are a lot of misconceptions about these holidays. St. Nicolas and Santaclaus are the same figure. That figure is a lot older than most Dutch even know. The same goes for black Pete. They are both form old Germanic believe systems. The origin is the upper god Wodan/Odin cumming from Valhalla down on his 8 legged horse Sleipnir t reward the good people and punish the bad people. To punish the bad people there is the boss of the realm of the dead named Nörwi. Nörwi looks like the church symbolizes the devil but is completely black to symbolize the connection with the real of the dead. Black Pete has something called a Roe, a buch of twigs. He can hit with that. Nörwi did the same by hitting the woman with it at the lower legs. That is part of a Germanic virility rite. That realm is called hell, but is not the burning hell the church made out of it. The closest to the original feast is the Austrian Grampus. The Dutch black Pete is not a black Face like in the 30s and 40s in America but Nörwi and thus Germanic northern European heritage we should be. The woman from the UN that made that a problem did not know anything of that Germanic origin. I also did not knew that until some people started calling black Pete racism. The entire party is Sinterklaas, chrismas and new years together is old Germanic Yule. Celebrating the shortest day and the up cumming spring. Instead of trying to destroy it we should preserve it as much as possible.
We used to agree to a certain amount of money each could spend on small presents and tongue-in-cheek things for one person whoms ‘lotery ticket’ you pulled. And it was kept a big secret for whoyou would buy/make the presents that year! This way there was no difference (or prestige-thing/favoratism) possible. And ofcourse at least one funny/cheeky personal poem had to be made! Gifts were wrapped, poems were written in secrecy, only reveiled on the Sinterklaas avond. For the kiddies it was all about the suspense and presents, for the adults all about fun and gezelligheid.
OMG You seem so confused about Sinterklaas and you did not even find out about “surprises”. (Pronounced as : Sur-pree-sus)
That’s a whole new can of worms.
😂😂😂
Hahaha this was funny! So if Santa and Sinterklaas would be one person, his wife would remind him constantly of his AA meetings… I don’t remember much about sinterklaas in my youth. Didn’t like him I guess. I do know when I told my little girl that Sinterklaas isn’t real, she looked at me with huge eyes and said ‘You lied to me!’ Yep. I did. So Christmas it is…
We (used to be) kids did the same for Sinterklaas: foraging through the big Bart Smit and/or Intertoys advertising books that were sent to every household. Ripping out the things you wanted, stcking them on the letter to Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet in your carrotfilled shoe. Later on (untill now?) the kids have a Sinterklaas-app to send him their wishes!!
When I grew up, Christmas was a religious celebration. On Christmas Eve (24 December) there was the midnight mass and breakfast ( in the middle of the night and again the next morning). Sometimes there were religious Christmas songs (not Rudolf the red nose reindeer) like Stille Nacht etc. Next day I was going to church again and in the afternoon going back to see the Christmas decoration with Jesus Christ. The first day was with the family and so was the second day. If you were married, you went the first day to your parents and the second day to your in-laws or the other way around. Later, when I had my child, I did not do a religious Christmas anymore. I went to so see a movie for children, with my family, and had a delicious diner afterwards. My mother never came at Christmas because she wanted it to celebrate in a religious way (she was not mad at us, just wanted her celebration her way). My in-laws organized a diner with the whole family on the second Christmas day or between Christmas and New Year's Eve. There were never presents at Christmas. Not when I was a child, and also not when I had my own child. Some people give presents on Christmas day, when their children are adults and do not celebrate Sinterklaas anymore. We never did that.
it used to be that there were only presents from St Nicolaas in the night of 5-6 december; nowadays children get to 'set their shoe' every evening, but presents are not given every night. Often only in the weekends. and up till the 5th of december only small gifts like sweets and chocolate.
St Nicolaas walks over the roofs on his horse and does help disperse the gifts (through the chimney!). He plays a bit dumb to help others to find a solution successfully but he knows everything will turn out fine!.
Some people choose to exchange gifts at christmas. Sint does (no longer) not take children to Spain, but you can get a 'roe' (bundle of twigs)
Hello Tammy and Eric first i just wanted to say i love your videos. just wanted to clarify a few things about sinteriklaas as you mentioned sinterklaas goes on the roof and he puts little gifts in the shoes that is why he goes on the roof . and on dec 5 and he will knock and leave a bag with gifts at the door . and they are zwart piet that is the tradition and i m not worried about that politically correct stuff
"We" took Sinterklaas to America. Coca-Cola changed his apperance, and placed him round christmas, as Santa claus. We took his twin brother right back, cause 2 is always better. 😂
And i have a real roe here at my house. I also still have these branches were they are made from. And i still have a chimney which is in use right now, burning wood. My house is from 1870 and is in the Belgium Ardennes. Here they also celebrate Sint Nikolaas. I am Dutch. The language here is German ( yes, really).
When I grew up we could put out our shoes every Saturday Sinterklaas was in The Netherlands. We made a nice drawing for Sinterklaas and got some Sinterklaas candy in return. On the 5th of december Black Pete brought presents. Knocking on the door and threw some candy in the room. Left the presents in the hallway. The punishments for being naughty where indeed taking away to Spain and even beating by Pete. Nowadays there are no punishments left. Also Black Pete is gone. Now it's Pete in all different colours and shades. Christmas in my days was going to church in the evening of the 24th and a midnight bread meal after that. On 25th we were going to the paternal grandparents and have a Christmas diner at home. 26th we went to the maternal grandparents. No gifts with Christmas.
The entire modern Sinterklaas stuff we have now was all invented in the 19th century to civilize the "Sinterklaas lopen" depravity that was going on at the time. Hence, the Christian elements were emphasized as were national Dutch virtues like moderation and frugality. The old traditions are still in full swing every year on the Wadden islands where Sunneklaas, Sunderum etc are still celebrated with wild abandon. Such wild abandon that non-islanders are actively discouraged from staying on Ameland around december 5th. All this is very reminiscent of the Germanic "wild hunt"