Sinterklaas

The holiday of Sinterklaas is celebrated on 5 December, and has a lot of similarities to Christmas:  Santa Claus and Sint Nikolaas are renowned for their love of children; Santa arrives at the end of the Thanksgiving Day Parade in the US and St Nikolaas travels with his servants (Piets) from Spain by steamboat a few weeks before the big day; they both know who's been good/bad.  An interesting tradition that Kees mentioned to me is that the Piets used to carry brushes to punish naughty children, and really bad children would be stuffed into a bag and taken back to Spain for a year for "rehabilitation."  I didn't see any brushes or Piets pretending to put a 'bad' kid in a bag;  Kees tells me that those punishments were stopped in the 1970's due to protests from people who felt that it would traumatize children.

I think that I would find it easier to believe in Sinterklaas-- no flying reindeer, tiny elves, or squeezing down chimneys (the Piets lower gifts by rope down chimneys).  On 18 November, 2000, I watched his arrival (on tv) in the town of Woldricheim, where it seemed like all of Holland's children were gathered. 

It wasn't just the little kids who had their eyes glued to the tv. Sinterklaas is for children-- but I've been told that childhood in Holland can last into one's 20's or so.

A couple of hours later, Sinterklaas rode into Hengelo surrounded by his faithful Piets...

...and followed by trailers with gifts and candy. These photos were taken through a window and any 'ghostly' images you see are reflections in the glass of Kees' nieces or nephew.  The 'ghost' in this image is Bente.

I had wondered about all the elaborate costumes I saw in the stores at the beginning of November...

Last of the trailers.

And to ensure that no one forgot which holiday was being celebrated...  These signs all came down on 6 December and the Christmas advertising began...