Sinterklaas

Ok, so I am a bit late on the deli every about Sinterklaas, but it is better late than never, right?

Ok, so on November 15th Sinterklaas the Dutch version of Santa comes to the Netherlands from Spain on a boat and has a little (actually quite a large parade). This year he came to Almere, a city in the North about an hour form Utrecht by train. So, myself and maybe 6 others we took the train to Almere to see Sinterklaas arrive. At the train station all the little kids were dressed up as Swarte Piet who is Sinterklaas's helpers, they are traditionally black slaves, but now the story is that they are black because of the soot from the chimney. It is a wacky tradition, but that is just it, it is a tradition. Back to the kids, some have black painted faces, that is the weird bit, considering they have blonde hair and blue eyes, but I wouldn't mess with the tradition. And, colourful outfits and little bags to collect candies that are handed out, and lastly, letters they have written for Sinterklaas. Very festive!

When we arrived in Almere it was chaos people everywhere, signs pointing us in the direction to the buses to get to the port. So, one bus ride packed full of little Swarte Piets and parents and we are taken to the parade zone. The parade route was already packed and we were an hour early! So, we squeezed ourselves into little pockets along the railings, and managed incredibly compromising positions to see the full parade route and get a proper glimpse of Sinterklaas. To keep the crowds entertained there were kids parading about along the route with decorative outfits they made in primary school, and then..... Sinterklaas's boat arrived. This massive ship decked (no pun intended) out to the 9's. It was at least 3 levels in total totally decorated, and loaded with Zwarte Piets. Finally, they docked and the procession began, first the Piet's came and threw, yes threw, little gingerbread cookies at the crowds, avoiding them was difficult. The Piet's were dancing and doing little acrobatic things along the way, collecting the letters for Sinterklaas, while the kids yelled "Piet, Piet, Piet"! Then, came Sinterklaas, who may I add looked like the Pope (historically Sinterklaas was a patron saint) riding along on his white horse, and looking ever so real! It was definitely one of the best Santa related parades I have ever been too, and our Christmas parade back home has nothing on the Sintreklaas parade. But, Sinterklaas came and went in the flashest of flashes, and then it was over. Kind of like the build up to Christmas, and then you open all the presents and then it is just the aftermath. But, for those few seconds that we saw Sinterklaas and the Piets it was totally worth it. Afterwards we took photos with a few Piets and then took a look at the boat, very decked out. You could go on the boat but, the line up was a bit too much for me, especially because I didn't want to take away a spot from a eagerly awaiting child. We saw some dancers, drank some hot chocolate, and then decided to head home exhausted from the chaos of the crowds and the excitement. However, the crowds to get on the buses back were just as bad. It was like waiting for the doors to open to Futureshop (maybe WalMart is a better choice) on Boxing Day... out of control. After 25 minutes we had enough and wiggled our way onto the bus and only to get on an indirectly wrong bus, meaning we had to transfer, but it turned out to be worth it because we were heading away from the crowds. When we arrived back at the train station we were famished, so we stopped in for a good ol' sub at Subway! Can you believe they have Subway? Me neither, but I was stoked they did, yum veggie foot long. We ran to catch our train and settled in for our ride back home.

A few things to note about Sinterklaas:

The kids put out their shoes with carrots or hay for the horse of Sinterklaas in exchange for presents.

Typical candy for Sinterklaas is: a chocolate letter- yum a block of solid chocolate in your first initial. Pepernoten, kruidnoten (is the type gingerbread-biscuits that Piet was throwing at the parade, but you also by them by the bags to eat),chocolate coins, a figurine of Sinterklaas made out of chocolate and wrapped in painted aluminium foil, and coloured marzipan shaped into fruit or animals. (Not a fan of the marzipan).

When you exchange gifts on December 5th, the eve of Sinterklaas's birthday you have to write a poem about the person you are giving the gift to. For example, I had to write a poem for our Sinterklaas gift exchange my international committee arranged, it goes like this: (don't laugh, I am a noob at this)

It has to rhyme...

Sinterklaas has come, and celebration is near.
If you listen closely, the shoes of Piet you will hear.
Because you have been so good this year.
Sinterklaas wants to share the cheer.

It was a generic poem for all the participants, but usually it is a little bit longer and more in depth, relating to the gift, and poking fun at the receiver of the gift. I think it is a cool tradition.

So, that was Sinterklaas, the more traditional Christmas celebration in the Netherlands. However, people do celebrate Christmas too, sometimes both!