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Meeting Saint Nicholas

December 6th is Saint Nicholas Day. This will be my third year to give the children gifts on Saint Nicholas Day and talk to them about who he was.

I teach at an International School, and I always check the notice board each day as I am coming and going. When I noticed an advertisement for a Sinterklass party featuring Zwarte Piet, I knew I had to check it out.

When we arrived, there were lots of nationalities represented. Jojo’s preschool teacher from when he was two years old was there, and gave us some insight about the St. Nicholas Day in France.

Apparently, in northwestern Europe, St. Nicholas Day is HUGE, bigger than Christmas in terms of gift giving and partying.

In France, St. Nicholas comes a-callin’ with a donkey, who carries a basket full of treats. He is also accompanied by Père Fouettard, his evil assistant whose name apparently translates to “the guy with the whip”.

Père Fouettard carries a switch or a whip, ever ready to punish naughty children, or at least whisper to St. Nicholas that this or that child does not deserve a gift this year.

Children prepare on the eve of St. Nicholas day by singing songs and leaving carrots out for the donkey. In the morning they wake to treats. But they still have to go to school, except for on the years that December 6 falls on a weekend.

The party we went to was not French, but Dutch.

In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas (Sinterklass) arrives by boat in mid-November. I mean seriously, some guy dressed as Sinterklass comes by boat from Spain and the national news broadcasts it all over the Netherlands. Isn’t that awesome?

Hubs has a Dutch student who is in his late teens. He said he believed in Sinterklass until he was 12, as you would if it was being reported on the news every year!

Once he arrives ashore, he gets on a white horse and goes to meet the mayor. This isn’t legend, this is what actually happens. Every year!

Sinterklass is dressed in Christmasy Pope-like clothes. I don’t know if the Pope dresses for Christmas but he could definitely get some inspiration here.

When we first arrived to the party, the first person we met was Zwarte Piet, or “Black Pete” in English.

Zwarte Piet is St. Nicholas’s mischievous assistant in the Netherlands and Belgium. I was initially told that his black appearance is a result of his job as a chimney sweep, and his clothes are from the Renaissance period. I guess that is the time when Zwarte Piet began.

Zwarte Piet carries a switch for punishing the naughty children (he is also rumored to stuff bad children into a huge duffle bag and carry them away to pirates. Awesome!), and has a bag of yummy small, round, ginger bread-like cookies, called “kruidnoten” or “pepernoten,”. My kids got cookies, not switches.

When I first heard about Black Peter from a Dutch Canadian woman back in 2002, I was pretty shocked. In fact, some people do say that Black Peter is a racist depiction of Spanish people in the 1600s. I prefer the chimney sweep explanation, and from what I experienced, Zwarte Piet/Black Pete/Black Peter is just a character borne from legend and not a racist caricature.

Would I be offended with a character called, oh, let’s say, “White Mike” who paints his face white, wears white gloves and gives kids cookies? I think I would be cool with it. The fluffy nightcap is kind of weird, but hey, that is the Renaissance for you.

The rest of the party was just eating a buffet and playing with the cheap toys that Sinterklass gave the kids.

Deeds and Jojo both ate ALL of the candy in their gift bag before the buffet got rolling.

Deeds really enjoyed those pepernoten cookies. It looks like he got a buzz.

On Sunday morning, my boys will get stockings filled with gifts “from Saint Nicholas.”

A European guy at the party said that American Santa Claus was invented by Coca-cola.

He is kind of right.

The role of Saint Nicholas’s assistants is kind of odd, but ultimately I like the fact that the day pays homage to a Saint, instead of a completely contrived character. Of course Saint Nicholas has become changed by folk lore and tradition, but we can say that he once existed, unlike the guy at the North Pole.

StNicholasCenter.org has some great online children’s resources for talking about and celebrating St. Nicholas Day.

You can also read about St. Nicholas Day customs around the world. Extremely interesting!

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