Sinterklaas, the most amusing and interesting Dutch festivity

The fifth of December The Netherlands celebrate one of its most important annual festivities (together with ‘Koninginnedag’, ‘Queensday’ the 30th of April). It is called ‘Sinterklaas’ (before ‘Sint Nicolaas’), in English ‘Saint Nicholas’. But don’t get confused, it’s not Santa Claus, it’s the other way around. In the former Dutch colony New Amsterdam (the later New York), Sinterklaas was also celebrated. Hence the origins of Santa Claus. It’s also celebrated in other parts of Central Europe but not as extensively as we Dutchmen do.

Actually, the festivity starts two weeks before the fifth of December, when Sinterklaas arrives in Holland with a boat from Spain. The ‘Pakjesboot’, ‘Boat of Presents’, boards every year in a different Dutch city. He probably arrives in a boat because in Spain he is the saint of the sailors. Besides a lot of presents and sweets, he brings with him his white horse called ‘Amerigo’ and a lot of helpers which are called ‘Zwarte Pieten’, ‘Black Petes’. He always used to have one assistant, but since the Canadian troops wanted to participate in the festivity of 1946 as Pieten there are a lot more of them.

During the two weeks before the fifth, the children put their shoes under the chimney or on the doormat, which is a phenomenon that already existed in the 13th century in my city, Utrecht. They almost always put a carrot or some straw for the horse in the shoe. At night Sinterklaas and the Zwarte Pieten go over the roofs and along the streets and leave presents in the shoes. The night of the 5th is ‘Pakjesavond’, ‘Night of presents’ in which the Pieten leave a big bag filled with, besides presents also special sweets, such as your initial in chocolate, marzipan animals and fruit and little spiced cookies.

At least a few presents have a poem attached to them too. This poem talks about the positive and negative qualities of the person. If the receiver is an adult, the poem also contains some (nasty) jokes. If everyone in the group is an adult, it is a habit to write your name on a paper, put it in a hat and take one out. Then you have to buy a gift for this person, write a poem and often make a ‘surprise’, which is a very original packaging. These days a lot of people, especially students, do ‘the game with the dice’. Everyone buys some presents which you put on the table and you put a kitchen timer on five minutes for example. Every number refers to an action. For example: 1 is opening a present, 2 is passing your gifts to the person on your left, 3 is changing a gift with someone of your choice, etcetera. This can get very exciting while time is running out, because you might want somebody else’s presents or you might not want to give yours away.

The roots of this festivity are really ancient. Sinterklaas is based on Saint Nicolas of Bari, a bishop that lived in the fourth century in Myra (in present Turkey) and is buried in Bari (which used to be part of the Reign of Spain, that’s why we say he’s from Spain). It is supposed that he was a very generous person to whom various miracles are attributed, for example having brought to life three children. During a thousand years the saint was only celebrated in the East, but since the thirteenth century his day of dying, the sixth of December, is also celebrated by European Christians. In the thirteenth century it turned into a real family festivity.

To this Cristian foundation pagan elements where added. Odin, a Germanic god, also went around on a white horse. He had a helper, that like Zwarte Piet had a rod -an old symbol of fertility-, which Piet uses to hit bad children. It is supposed that Zwarte Pìet is a demon which Saint Nicholas obliged to perform noble acts. There are also people who say that it is a child from Ethiopia Sinterklaas saved. You can also interpret Piet as a shadow of an ugly part of our past, because The Netherlands used to trade a lot of African slaves. Because of this a few of colored Dutchmen object to this element. The children simply see them as white people who got dirty climbing down the chimney. I think a line of one of the many songs we sing during Sinterklaas is more preoccupying: “Ook al ben ik zwart als roet, ‘k meen het wel goed”, “Even though I’m black, I have good intentions.”

Every year, at the beginning of the evening, my grandparents went to the hallway to get dressed, he as Sinterklaas and she as Zwarte Piet. I had never seen them as happy as during that day of the year. It was a pity that I wasn’t there when my grandfather imitated Saint Nicolas, who at his turn imitated a Dutch/Moroccan rapper. The year after, my grandmother passed away just three days before Sinterklaas. Of course we didn’t really feel like celebrating, so we only did the game with the dice. The year after the joy returned to our house, and my grandfather put on his costume again. Last Sinterklaas my grandfather was already in the last months of his life. Because of two strokes unable to communicate, he had dinner with us but left before the game. This year I was in Argentina, telling everybody who wanted to hear me about this special festivity that for me is above all the celebration of the grandfather, my grandfather, whose name is not by chance ‘Jan Nicolaas’, John Nicholas.

Noortje Peverelli, Dutch intern