Sint and Snow

When we booked the "clubhuis" for Alex's birthday, we got membership to the community group for a year. We recently got an email inviting us to a party to celebrate the arrival of Sinterklaas and the re-opening of the clubhuis after its summer refurbishment.

For anyone who doesn't know - here's what Wiki says about Sint.

The Sinterklaas feast celebrates the birthday of Saint Nicholas (280-342), patron saint of children. Saint Nicholas was a bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey.

Sinterklaas has a long white cape, wears a white bishop's dress and white mitre (bishop's hat), and holds a crosier, a long black coloured staff with a fancy curled top. He carries a big book that tells whether each individual child has been good or naughty in the past year.

He traditionally rides a white horse. In the Netherlands this horse goes by the name "Amerigo," while in Belgium the horse is either nameless or is called "Slecht weer vandaag," literally "bad weather today." The origin of this unusual name is the children's TV show Dag Sinterklaas' by Bart Peeters. In Flanders, up to the mid-20th century, Sinterklaas was depicted using a black mule, rather then a horse. This image is preserved in the Nero comic books, where, oddly enough, the mule insists on being referred to as the "horse" of Sinterklaas.

"Zwarte Piet," Sinterklaas' helping hand Black Pete, has his origin in the bishop's legendary past. Three small Moorish boys were sentenced to death for a crime they did not commit. The bishop intervened and they were saved. To show their gratitude, the boys stayed with Sinterklaas to help him, tumbling and jumping on rooftops on Sinterklaas night to deliver presents. Their black skin may refer either to their Moorish background, or to the job of chimneysweep, an option is corroborated by their clothes, reminiscent of an Italian chimneysweep's costume and Pete's rooftop occupation.

Sinterklaas and his Black Petes usually carry a bag, which contains candy for nice children and a "roe," a bunch of willow branches used to spank naughty children — in actuality a chimneysweep's broom. Some of the older Sinterklaas songs make mention of naughty children being put in the bag and being taken back to Spain. The Zwarte Pieten toss candy around, a tradition supposedly originating in Sint Nicolaas' story of saving three young girls from prostitution by tossing golden coins through their window at night to pay their father's debts.

We had a great time watching the kids decorating, colouring in and then signing "sint carols" - we have a lot to learn. When Sint arrived with his Piet's, there was great excitement amongst most of the kids. Alex however was most interested in eating the "pepernoten" ... kind of like baby gingernut biscuits for the kiwis out there!

Alex was also lucky enough to receive his own gift .... a magna doodle ... which he is having great fun with ... and something I never would have thought to buy him yet. After the party we had a swing in the snow (the first of hte year) before heading home.