Starting from November 15th, Sinterklaas arrived in The Netherlands. The Sinterklaas feast celebrates the birthday of Saint Nicholas (280-342), patron saint of children.
Sinterklaas has a long red cape, wears a white bishop's dress and red mitre (bishop's hat), 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 white horse.
"Zwarte Piet," Sinterklaas' helping hand Black Pete. 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. The Zwarte Pieten toss candy around.
Sinterklaas traditionally arrives each year in November - this year it was Saturday the 15th in the town of Almere - by steamboat from Spain. He is then paraded through the streets, welcomed by cheering and singing children. His Zwarte Piet assistants throw candy and small, round, ginger bread-like cookies, either "kruidnoten" or "pepernoten," into the crowd. The children welcome him by singing traditional Sinterklaas songs. Sinterklaas also visits schools, hospitals and shopping centres. After this arrival all towns with a dock have their own "intocht van Sinterklaas" (arrival of Sinterklaas). Local arrivals usually take place on Sunday, the day after he arrives in the Netherlands. In places a boat cannot reach, Sinterklaas arrives by train, bus, horse, or even carriage.
Traditionally, in the weeks between his arrival and December 5, before going to bed children put their shoes next to the central heating, with a carrot or some hay in it and a bowl of water "for Sinterklaas's horse," and sing a Sinterklaas song; the next day they will find some candy or a small present in their shoes, thrown down the chimney by a Zwarte Piet or Sinterklaas himself. Black Pete enters the house through the chimney. In The Netherlands adults started to give each other presents on the evening of the 5th; then older children were included and today in these countries sometimes even the youngest on the evening of December 5 (Saint Nicholas' eve), known as Sinterklaasavond.
After the singing of traditional Sinterklaas songs, there will be a loud knock on the door or the window, and a sack full of presents is found on the doorstep, or next to the chimney. Presents are often accompanied by a simple poem, saying something about the child or with a hint to the nature of the present.
During the time between the 15th and the 5th, Kevin and Flat Stanley attended parties in Nieuwegein (where mom's first dutch apartment was), at preschool, at his 'gastouder' Anky's house and finally on the evening of December 5th, Kevin celebrated with both his parents together at his father's house. Kevin dressed up at School as a 'Zwarte Piet' and at the party in Nieuwegein, he made his own "Zwarte Piet" hat and got to shake the hand of Sinterklaas!
Between Sinterklaas and Christmas - Kinderboederij and the Speelkasteel
Shortly after Sinterklaas, but before the real build-up to Christmas began, we took advantage of an ok day weather wise to go to the Kinderboderij (children's farm) in Hoofddorp. He had a lot of fun seeing the sheep, chicken and rabbits, and Stanley and Kevin even 'rode' on the play tractor at the end of the visit.
The children's farms are sort of like a petting zoo, but they are run as a real farm, on land donated by the city or a private individual, and run usually by volunteers on donations and sponsors. Entrance is free every day between 10 am and 4 or 4.30. We try to go at least 2 times a month. Our favourite ones is in Nieuw Vennep because it has a much better petting area for the rabbits, gerbils and hamsters. Kevin calls it the 'big one' :-). We also visit together with Papa one in Hoofddorp frequently, which is not too far from where papa lives (also in Hoofddorp).
Also in Hoofddorp is a large indoor playground and climbing castle. We've blogged about it before (most recently with Winne & Lars), and the speelkasteel will be where Kevin's 4th Birthday party will be this year. Kevin loves to ride the motorcycles and play air-hockey, and Stanley was his cheerleader at our trip before we went back to the US.
We hope that Stanley had as fun fun during his adventures as we did! We look forward to hearing from Vivian where he's off to next!
Didi Bear and Kevin
