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In Belgium, Germany and Holland the festivity of Sinterklaas is celebrated in December.

Because I'm Dutch I'll try to give a description of this happening the way it is celebrated in the Netherlands. In my country Sinterklaas is the most important celebration after Christmas (and I bet for a considerable amount of Dutch people the most important celebration). The birthday of this wise and gentle bishop is on December 6, but in Holland Sinterklaas is celebrated on the night before: December 5. The popularity of this remarkable figure originates probably from the fact that Sinterklaas gives presents on his birthday in stead of receiving them.

Sinterklaas is primarily a festivity meant for small children up to the age of seven, because they believe Sinterklaas is a real person.

• The Arrival of Sinterklaas
• Who is Sinterklaas?
• The black Servants of Sinterklaas
• The Horse of Sinterklaas
• The Night of Sinterklaas
• Children and Grownups
• Sinterklaas songs
• Sinterklaas candy
• The Origins of Sinterklaas
• Wodan and Santa

The Arrival of Sinterklaas

On a Saterday afternoon in November, around 12:00 o'clock, about two weeks before his birthday, the Saint arrives on a steam boat with a bunch of black servants, wearing tights, in a picturesque typical Dutch town. This town, which is especially chosen, must be endowed with a harbour with regard to the steamboat. This steamboat is supposed to be filled with presents, candy and clementines (a seasonal fruit).
The black men are called Zwarte Pieten (black Petes). The black Petes are really white men and women who made their faces black. Nowadays they use make-up, but in the paste they used charcoal or shoepaste.
It's no wonder children love Sinterklaas so much. While he is in Holland, they get candy and presents all the time.

The arrival of Sinterklaas is broadcasted extensively on television.
Meanwhile, in every Dutch town there is a procession with Sinterklaas on horseback and surrounded by his servants. It's known as the Intocht van Sinterklaas.

In the period starting shortly before his arrival and his birthday, Sinterklaas encounters many adventures. We can follow this on tv by watching the Sinterklaasjournaal, that is broadcasted daily. In this program every year one or more of these disasters happen:

• Sinterklaas gets lost;
• The steamboat gets lost;
• A black Pete gets lost;
• Several black Petes get lost;
• The white horse gets lost;
• The book of Sinterklaas gets lost;
• The presents get lost.

The festivity threatens to go down the drain, but fortunately in the end all lost persons and things are found and everything turns out well.

In the two weeks preceding his birthday, Sint has a lot to do. At night he rides his horse over the roofs of the houses, accompanied by his servants. In the houses, the children put their shoe near the chimney with a carrot for the horse, before they go to bed. The children sing special Sinterklaas songs at the same time through the chimney pipe. During the night the black men descend down the chimneypipe to take away the carrot and put some candy for the children in return.
In the daytime Sinterklaas is invited to television programs, radio stations, and visits schools and institutions for the elderly.

Sinterklaas or Saint Nicolas was a bishop, who lived in Mira, Turkey. That territory was part of the East Roman Empire at the time.
Today he is still a bishop and lives in Mira, Spain.
He wears a red bishop garment (tabberd in Dutch), with a white dress underneath and a head dress called a mijter. He holds a golden staff and rides a white horse. Another attribute of his is a large book with a Roman Catholic cross on it, in which the names of naughty children and grownups are written. When Sinterklaas comes along for a visit, this book is handed over to him by a Pete, after the bishop is seated in the most beautiful chair around.

When the Saint arrives in Holland in the middle of November, it's almost winter. The weather is cold, it rains and it storms.
Sinterklaas is associated with the sea, children, lovers, money, Spain, tangerines, clementines, darkness, night, presents, roof tops and a white horse.

When I was small (1953-1960) Sint still had a stern aspect. When children had behaved bad, they were threatened that Sint would take them with him to Spain in the sack. Also children were threatened to get punished with the "roe"; a bunch of branches. The "roe" is an attribute of chimney sweepers, by the way. Or instead of a present, they would get a bag with salt. These things never happened, although occasionally in school some 'bad' children were asked to appear before Sinterklaas and were reprimanded.
Nowadays punishment is not given anymore and children are no longer afraid of Sinterklaas and his black valets. They regard Sinterklaas as a very sweet old gentleman, that gives presents and his valets as funny guys, throwing candy.

The Sint is accompanied by black valets, who throw candy and perform acrobatic tricks. They are all called Piet (Pete, Pedro). They are always in a good mood and funny and like to tease. The Petes carry around a large sack with them. This sack contains candy or presents, but it is also used to carry bad children off to Spain. Also the Pieten carry a bunch of twigs, called a roe. It's used to clean chimnies with. This roe was also used to beat naughty children in the past.

Why do the Petes have a black skin colour?
The Petes may be black, because they were originally chimney sweepers. They also may be descendants from the Mores, who settled in Spain, where Sinterklaas comes from. Also they may be originated from naughty and hilarious water spirits or water demons (called Nix), who were black (drowned people are black). Maybe they originate from the black slave trade period (West India Compagny: 1621-1792). Descendants of the slaves, who live in the Netherlands, often object to the Sinterklaas festivities. They think it is discriminating. As a solution it is sometimes suggested to do away with the black Petes and instead use white Petes, but somehow that doesn't seem to work at all.

Many questions regarding the Petes remain unsolved:
When did these black figures began to accompany the bishop, who formerly seems to have acted alone?
Why do the Petes wear costumes, originating from the period when William of Orange lived (1533-1584)?

The horse of Sinterklaas is white. It doesn't have any trouble riding over rooftops.

Still from the NTR life broadcast 'De Intocht van Sinterklaas', Saterday, November 13, 2010 from 12:00 hours.
Sinterklaas rides on his horse through the streets of harbourtown Harderwijk, surrounded by his servants.
In 2010 (as in former years) this part is splendidly performed by Amerigo, a - in 2010 29 year old - retired police horse.

In the Netherlands the festivities of Sinterklaas are celebrated on the 5th of December at night. The two weeks before were only a prelude with some candy and small presents put into shoes. At this night the really expensive and important presents will be distributed.
The birthday of Sinterklaas is on the 6th, but by then he is already on his steamboat, heading back to Spain. On December 6 Sinterklaas, black servants and horse have also dissapeared instantly and completely, back on their way to Spain with 'Sint'.
On December 5, the day before the birthday of Sinterklaas, the activities of Sint and his helpers are intensified. They appear more often everywhere.
On the evening of December 5 Sinterklaas rides with his horse as usual over the roofs of the houses, accompanied by his black petes. Poor Sinterklaas: riding with his horse over the roof tops in terrible weather. While the children downstairs sit safe and warm next to the central heating singing Sinterklaas songs, a black valet puts a sack filled with presents at the frontdoor and rings the bell or knocks.

In reality it's not Sinterklaas, that gives the presents, it's the grownups, but children do not know this. Children up to about 7 years believe in Sinterklaas. Beyond that age inconsistencies are being noticed, and slowly the believe subsides. Such a inconsistency is, for instance, that on the night of December 5 it's possible to encounter various Sinterklaases outdoors, while there should be only one. 'Hired' Sinterklaases and petes hurry from one family to another to perform the roles of Sinterklaas and Pete at the festivity. Another inconsistency may be, that the beard of Sinterklaas doesn't look real, but seems to be made out of cotton wool. Or that the Sinterklaas who visited school yesterday had brown eyes, while the one bringing a house visit today has blue ones.
It's very enjoyable for the grownups to look at little children, who believe in Sinterklaas. The children are completely carried away by their love and admiration for this nice old person, that looks so beautiful and gives wonderful presents. Therefore Sinterklaas festivities with little children are great fun. But grownups give each other presents too. It's not necessary to give expensive gifts. Here it's originality that counts. Sinterklaas presents are always wrapped in a special way and are always accompanied by a funny poem. A present can take the form for instance of the large book of Sinterklaas, in which the name of naughty children are written down.
In the poem, which is always signed by 'Sint' or 'Sinterklaas', the receiver of the present is chastised and teased for his character failures and the stupid things he has done during this last year. The receiver must read the poem aloud and this causes always much hilarity.

• pepernoten
• suikergoed
• marsepein figures
• speculaas
• meijers (speculaas dolls)
• chocolate characters
• chocolate money
• chocolate animals and animals of sugar
• borstplaat
• tangerines or clementines (appeltjes van oranje): a fruit, that you can only get in this time of the year and is coming from Spain.

If you like to make this candy, here are some recipes. I haven't tried these, so I don't know if they are any good.

There are a lot of Sinterklaas songs, that every Dutch child learns to sing. The songs are sung to celebrate Sinterklaas. When the children are laying their shoes in front of the chimney before going to bed, they sing a song to Sinterklaas.

Some songtitles:

• Zie ginds komt de stoomboot
• Zie de maan schijnt door de bomen
• O kom er eens kijken
• Daar wordt aan de deur geklopt
• Sinterklaasje bonne bonne bonne

On this site you can see the songtexts.

I think that Sinterklaas bears a lot of resemblance with the American, British and German Santa Claus (Saint Nicolas).
A website that gives a good insight into the Santa Claus village at the North Pole is Santa Claus.com.
Santa and Sint both give presents to children, that behave well. They are both dressed in red and white. Both wear a long, white beard. Sinterklaas rides the roofs with a white horse and is accompanied by black servants, that dug into the chimneys to bring presents. Santa Claus flies through the air with a sleigh, pulled by reindeer and has elves as assistants.
The Dutch word for elf or elfje by the way is fairy. Fairies or elfjes are beautiful, winged, small creatures, associated with flowers, trees and brooks. The Santa Claus elves look a bit like dwarves or gnomes, except that neither Dutch dwarves nor gnomes have pointed ears, like Santa's elves. Nor do the Dutch fairies.
The Dutch word for dwarf or gnome is kabouter or dwerg.

I feel the figures of Sinterklaas and Santa Claus evoke a pagan world that has been almost completely oppressed by the Christian church. The pagan festivities, that were probably associated with the agricultural cyclus, have been replaced by Christian ones. Fortunately this church didn't succeed in repressing all the pagan characteristics: a lot of the ancient customs and figures were too popular and still shine through. Easter (Dutch: Pasen) for instance, celebrated at the beginning of spring, was originally the fest of Ostara, the goddess of fertility. Her favorite animal was a hare.
It seems the Christmas tree is inventent in the nineteenth century by romantic Germans. But decorated trees are an ingredient of pagan festivities, especially the ones that stay green all year.
I believe that Sinterklaas or Santa Claus are the more sedate and acceptable versions of Wodan, the Germanic head god, or Odin, the Germanic god of war.
Wodan wore a black lappet over one eye, a hat or hood, that hided his face from view, and a large cloak. Wodan lost his eye in return for a drink from the Wisdom Well.
He carried a spear called Gungner and two raven, Hugin and Munin, flew around him. He used to roam at night, just like Sint Nicolaas and Santa do in the period at the end of each year. Wodan wandered the earth all year and sometimes sat down at a dinner table. People used to keep a place free at the table, just in case Wodan, or some other traveler, came along.
Wagner based his Nibelungen opera on the Norwegian Edda. In the Edda the Nordic mythology is described. The Nibelungen were dwarves of the night: astoundingly good craftsmen, able to forge things that have supernatural powers and with a great desire to acquire treasures.
One of the names of Wodan is Oski, the granter of wishes, known for his generosity. Apart from being a wanderer, he also is a wise man. But he has his less agreeable sites: he's the God of Death and War, for instance. Wodan flew through the air, sitting on his eight legged horse Sleipnir, at the head of a throng of violent dogs, vicious horses and crazy warriors. These warriors were the berserks: insane and bloodthirsty. They were indeed a far cry from the happy elves of Mr. Claus or the merry black Peters from Sinterklaas.
Probably parents used the sinister Wodan as a way to scare their children in order to make them behave better; just like they use Sint or Santa Claus nowadays.
And the predecessor of Zwarte Piet was probably also used as a boogy man to scare children.