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Sinterklaas, Santa Claus, and Christmas

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Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Piet

The Feast of Saint Nicholas, by Jan Steen

Sinterklaas is a traditional Winter holiday figure in the Netherlands, Belgium, Aruba,             Suriname and Netherlands Antilles; he is celebrated annually on Saint Nicholas’ eve (5 December) or, in Belgium, on the morning of 6 December. The feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of Amsterdam, children and sailors. He is the basis of the mythical holiday figure of Santa Claus in the United States.

Sinterklaas is his usual name. The more formal name is Sint Nicolaas or Sint Nikolaas. He is also known as Goedheiligman or simply Sint [ pronunciation (help·info)]. The Dutch write Sinterklaas.

Saint Nicholas is also celebrated in the traditionally Germanic parts of France (Nord-Pas de Calais, Alsace, Lorraine), as well as in Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and in the town of Trieste and in Eastern Friuli in Italy. Additionally, many Roman Catholics of Alsatian and Lotharingian descent in Cincinnati, Ohio, celebrate “Saint Nicholas Day” on the morning of 6 December. The traditions differ from country to country.

History

The Sinterklaas feast celebrates the name day, 6 December, of Saint Nicholas (280–342), patron saint of children and sailors. Saint Nicholas was a bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey. In the 11th century, the saint’s bones were taken and moved to southern Italy, an area then ruled by Spain, and relics and his fame spread throughout Europe. The Western Christian Church made his name day a Church holiday. In the north of France, he became the patron saint of school children, then mostly in church schools. The folk feast arose during the Middle Ages. In early traditions, students elected one of them as “bishop” on St. Nicholas Day, who would rule until December 28 (Innocents Day). They sometimes acted out events from the bishop’s life. As the festival moved to city streets, it became more lively.^[1]

Numerous parallels have been drawn between the legend of Sinterklaas / Sint Nicholas and the figure of Odin, a major god amongst the Germanic peoples and worshipped in north-Western Europe prior to Christianization. Since many elements of the Sinterklaas celebration are unrelated to Christianity, there are theories regarding the pagan origins of various customs of the holiday stemming from areas where the Germanic peoples were Christianized and retained elements of their indigenous traditions, surviving in various forms into modern depictions of Sinterklaas. Non-Christian elements in Sinterklaas that could be of pagan origin:

• Sinterklaas rides the roof tops with his gray horse Amerigo; Odin rides the sky with his gray horse Sleipnir.
• Sinterklaas and Odin are both depicted with a long beard.
• Sinterklaas has a staff and mischievous helpers with black faces; Odin has a spear and black ravens as his attributes.^[2]
• According to Phyllis Siefker, children in pre-Christian North Western Europe would place their boots, filled with carrots, straw, or sugar, near the chimney for Odin’s flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir’s food with gifts or candy. This practice survived in Belgium and the Netherlands after the adoption of Christianity and became associated with Sinterklaas.^[3]

Sinterklaas is assisted by many mischievous helpers with black faces and colourful Moorish dresses, dating back two centuries. These helpers are called ‘Zwarte Pieten’ (Black Petes). During the Middle-ages Zwarte Piet was a name for the devil. Having triumphed over evil, it was said that on Saint Nicholas eve the devil was shackled and made his slave. Although the character of Black Pete later came to acquire racial connotations, his origins were in the devil figure. This racialization is reflected in the reworking of the characters’ mythos. Their blackness was racial, with Pete being an imported African servant of Saint Nicholas since 1850 (though some people say Pete was a slave who, when Sinterklaas bought him his freedom, was so grateful that he stayed to assist him). Today however, the more politically correct explanation that Pete’s face is “black from soot” (as Pete has to climb through chimneys to deliver his gifts) is used. Traditionally Saint Nicholas only had one helper, whose name varied wildly. “Piet(er)” the name in use now can be traced back to a book from 1891.

In medieval times, the feast was both an occasion to help the poor, by putting money in their shoes (which evolved into putting presents in children’s shoes) and a wild feast, similar to Carnival, that often led to costumes, a “topsy-turvy” overturning of daily roles, and mass public drunkenness. After the Protestant Reformation, England and Germany prohibited celebration of the saint; Netherlands also became a largely Protestant country following the Reformation, and the government abolished public celebrations in the 17th century, but people protested, including students in Amsterdam. The government allowed celebration within the family. In the nineteenth century, as shown below, the saint became more secularized.^[1]

The modern tradition of Sinterklaas as a children’s feast was likely confirmed with the illustrated children’s book Sint Nicolaas en zijn knecht (Saint Nicholas and His Servant), written in 1850 by the teacher Jan Schenkman (1806–1863). He introduced the images of Sinterklaas’ delivering presents by the chimney, riding over the roofs of houses on a gray horse, and arriving from Spain by steamboat, then an exciting modern invention. The book’s ideas were incorporated by many across the Netherlands in their personal and communal celebrations. Schenkman also introduced the song “Zie ginds komt de stoomboot” (“See, there comes the steamboat”), still popular in the nation. In Schenkman’s version, the medieval figures of the mock devil, which later changed to Oriental or Moorish helpers, was portrayed for the first time as black African and called Zwarte Piet (Black Peter).^[1] He is a negro boy who accompanies Sinterklaas and helps him on his rounds (possibly derived from the Dutch colonial experience, or the Moorish occupation of Spain, the main Catholic nation.) In late 20th and 21st century celebrations, numerous people dress as Zwarte Pieten in various cities across the Netherlands.^[4]

In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas’ Eve (5 December) is the chief occasion for gift-giving during the Christmas season. The evening is called “sinterklaasavond” or “pakjesavond” (“presents evening”). In the Netherlands, most children receive their presents on this evening. For Belgian and some Dutch children it is customary to put their shoe in front of the fireplace on the evening of 5 December, then go to bed, and find the presents around the shoes on the morning of the 6th.

Sinterklaas during World War II

In the lean times of the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945), Sinterklaas nonetheless came to cheer everyone, not just children. Many of the traditional Sinterklaas rhymes written during those times^[5] referred to current events. The Royal Air Force (RAF) was often celebrated. In 1941, for instance, the RAF dropped boxes of candy over the occupied Netherlands. A contemporary poem was the following:

R.A.F. Kapoentje,

Gooi wat in mijn schoentje,

Bij de Moffen gooien,

Maar in Holland strooien!

This is a variation of one of the best-known traditional Sinterklaas rhymes, with “R.A.F.” replacing “Sinterklaas” in the first line (the two expressions have the same metrical characteristics), and in the third and fourth lines, the RAF is encouraged to drop bombs on the Moffen (slur for Germans, like “krauts” in English) and candy over the Netherlands. Many of the Sinterklaas poems of this time noted the lack of food and basic necessities, and the German occupiers having taken everything of value; others expressed admiration for the Dutch Resistance.^[6]

Physical descriptions

Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas has a long red cape, wears a traditional white bishop’s robe and red mitre, and holds a crosier, a long gold-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 gray horse.

Zwarte Piet

Sinterklaas and his Black Pete usually carry a bag which contains candy for nice children and a roe, a chimney sweep’s broom made of willow branches, used to spank naughty children.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. They also climb down chimneys to fill the children’s shoes with presents, this causes their skin to be black.^{[citation needed]}

Arrival

Sinterklaas arrives

Sinterklaas and his assistants name Pieter

Sinterklaas traditionally arrives in the Netherlands each year in mid-November (usually on a Saturday) by steamboat from Spain. Some suggest that gifts associated with the holy man, such as mandarin oranges, led to the misconception that he must have been from Spain. He parades through the streets on his gray horse Amerigo, welcomed by cheering and singing children.^[7] This event is broadcast live on national television in the Netherlands and Belgium. His Zwarte Piet assistants throw candy and small, round, gingerbread-like cookies, either “kruidnoten” or “pepernoten,” into the crowd. The children welcome him by singing traditional Sinterklaas songs. Sinterklaas visits schools, hospitals and shopping centers. After this arrival, all towns with a dock usually celebrate their own “intocht van Sinterklaas” (arrival of Sinterklaas). Local arrivals usually take place later on the same Saturday of the national arrival, the next Sunday (the day after he arrives in the Netherlands or Belgium), or one weekend after the national arrival. In places a boat cannot reach, Sinterklaas arrives by train, horse, or even carriage or fire truck.

Presents

Traditionally, in the weeks between his arrival and 5 December, before going to bed, children put their shoes next to the fireplace chimney of the coal-fired stove or fireplace. In modern times, they may put them next to the central heating unit. They leave the shoe with a carrot or some hay in it and a bowl of water nearby “for Sinterklaas’ horse”, and the children sing a Sinterklaas song. The next day they will find some candy or a small present in their shoes.

Typical Sinterklaas treats traditionally include: hot chocolate, mandarin oranges, pepernoten, letter-shaped pastry filled with almond paste or chocolate letter (the first letter of the child’s name made out of chocolate), speculaas (sometimes filled with almond paste), chocolate coins and marzipan figures. Newer treats include kruidnoten (a type of shortcrust biscuit or gingerbread biscuits) and a figurine of Sinterklaas made of chocolate and wrapped in colored aluminum foil.

Poems can still accompany bigger gifts as well. Instead of such gifts being brought by Sinterklaas, family members may draw names for an event comparable to Secret Santa. Gifts are to be creatively disguised (for which the Dutch use the French word “surprise”), and are usually accompanied by a humorous poem which often teases the recipient for well-known bad habits or other character deficiencies.^[8]

Sinterklaas, Santa Claus, and Christmas

Sinterklaas is the basis for the North American figure of Santa Claus. It is often claimed that during the American War of Independence the inhabitants of New York City, a former Dutch colonial town (New Amsterdam) reinvented their Sinterklaas tradition, as Saint Nicholas was a symbol of the city’s non-English past.^[9] The name Santa Claus supposedly derived from older Dutch Sinter Klaas. But, the Saint Nicholas Society was not founded until 1835, almost half a century after the end of the war.^[10] In a study of the “children’s books, periodicals and journals” of New Amsterdam, the scholar Charles Jones did not find references to Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas.^[11] Not all scholars agree with Jones’s findings, which he reiterated in a book in 1978;^[12] Howard G. Hageman, of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, maintains that the tradition of celebrating Sinterklaas in New York existed in the early settlement of the Hudson Valley. He agrees that “there can be no question that by the time the revival of St. Nicholas came with Washington Irving, the traditional New Netherlands observance had completely disappeared.”^[13]

Irving’s stories prominently featured legends of the early Dutch settlers, so while the traditional practice may have died out, Irving’s St. Nicholas may have been a revival of that dormant Dutch strand of folklore. The Saint Nicholas Society of New York celebrates a feast on 6 December to this day. The town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York, which was founded by Dutch and German immigrants, has an annual Sinterklaas celebration. It includes Sinterklaas’ crossing the Hudson River and a parade up to the center of town.^[14]

During the Reformation in 16th-17th century Europe, many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the Christ Child or Christkindl (corrupted in English to Kris Kringle). Similarly, the date of giving gifts changed from December 5 or 6th to Christmas Eve.^[15]