DEC. 18, 1964
Netherlands make memories, recall the past
In my native country, the Netherlands, most families celebrate Christmas strictly as a religious feast. The whole family comes together, has a big dinner, sings Christmas carols and goes to church to the midnight service.
In the U. S. Santa Claus plays a big role in the Christmas celebration. Many of you will probably know that the early Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam actually brought "Sinter Klaas" (St. Nicholas) to America and celebrated it on Dec. 5th every year. Soon the Americans adopted the story and changed the name to Santa Claus and they thought it more logical to have him appear at Christmas.
The original story is that St. Nicholas lives all year long in Spain with his servants, the "swarte Pieten" (black Peters). His birthday is on Dec. 5th and this is St. Nicholas Day.
Early in November St. Nicholas sends some "swarte Pieten" to the Netherlands to see which children have been sweet and which have been naughty. This is why many children up to the age of 10 suddenly try to be sweet to their parents and teachers at school. Every night during November they put their shoes (many years ago their wooden shoes) by the stove and sing St. Nicholas songs. Their songs originated in the Middle Ages. The story goes that the "swarte Pieten" walk over the roofs and drop candy and cookies through the chimney into the shoes. In the morning the children run to their shoes. The ones who have been naughty get nothing.
Later in November St. Nicholas comes by boat accompanied by some more "swarte Pieten" to the Netherlands in order to give the children who have been very sweet during his absence presents, and to celebrate his birthday.
When St. Nicholas arrives at the port of Amsterdam, the mayor gives him his white horse to travel through the country and to visit the children. The children of course are anxiously waiting for him. They put their shoes by the chimney and also dishes with water, straw and carrots for St. Nicholas' horse. St. Nicholas on horseback makes his night tour over the roofs of the houses accompanied by his servants.
When we reach the age of about 10 or 12, we realize that our parents have been pulling our leg and that St. Nicholas does not exist, we start celebrating St. Nicholas' birthday in another way. We take revenge on the people who have poked fun at us in the past.
A few days before St. Nicholas Day we are busy baking cakes, making big artificial cigars or stuffing nylon stockings with paper. The reason for all this is that we put our presents in these objects, so that the receiver has a hard time finding his present, especially if the present is baked in a cake or molded in a plaster cast. All in good fun! We write a kind of poem for each "surprise" present in which we attack all bad qualities of the receiver.
Our regular celebration of Christmas in a religious way comes then on Dec. 25th.
The St. Nicholas story dates back to the Middle Ages. St. Nicholas was a saint, living at Myra in Asia Minor. This saint was well known for his generosity. He was loved by everybody, especially the children. He had supposedly lived most of the year in Spain with his servants who were Moors and who originally came from North Africa. During the ages people added to the story until the story had this present form.
I am looking forward to seeing how Christmas is celebrated in the U.S. I suspect it will be quite different from the way we celebrate Christmas.