Last Week's Meeting 12/5/18

Our own city councilman-elect, Peter van Sluis presented last week's program about the history of St. Nicholas. The following is a summary of his presentation combined with some additional research.

Sinterklaas arrives every November to the Netherlands by steamboat from Madrid, Spain.

Sinterklaas or Sint-Nicolaas is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. 

The feast of Sinterklaas celebrates the birthday of St. Nicholas on December 6th every year. The feast is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on St. Nicholas' Eve ( December 5th) in the Netherlands. The tradition is also celebrated in territories of the former Dutch Empire.

Sinterklaas is the primary source of the popular our Christmas - Santa Claus.

Sinterklaas is based on the historical figure of Saint Nicholas (270–343), a Greek bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey. He is depicted as an elderly, stately and serious man with white hair and a long, full beard. He wears a long red cape over a traditional white bishop's alb and sometimes red stola, dons a red cape and ruby ring, and holds a gold-colored long ceremonial shepherd's staff with a fancy curled top. He traditionally rides a white horse. In the Netherlands, the horse is called Amerigo.  Sinterklaas carries a big, red book in which is written whether each child has been good or naughty in the past year.

Zwarte Piet

Two Dutch women in costume as Zwarte Piet.

Sinterklaas is assisted by many Zwart Piete; helpers with black faces in colorful Moorish dress. Zwarte Piet first appeared in print as the nameless servant of Saint Nicholas in published in 1850 by Amsterdam schoolteacher Jan Schenkman; however, the tradition appears to date back at least as far as the early 19th Century.

Zwarte Piet's colorful dress is based on 16th-century noble attire, with a lace collar and a feathered cap. He is typically depicted carrying a bag which contains candy for the children, which they toss around, a tradition supposedly originating in the story of Saint Nicholas saving three young girls from slavery by tossing golden coins through their window at night to pay their dowries.

Traditionally, he would also carry a birch rod, a chimney sweep's broom made of willow branches, used to spank children who had been naughty. Some of the older Sinterklaas songs make mention of naughty children being put in Zwarte Piet's bag and being taken back to Spain. This part of the legend refers to the times that the Moors raided the European coast, and as far as Iceland, to abduct the local people into slavery. In modern versions of the Sinterklaas feast, however, Zwarte Piet no longer carries the rod and children are no longer told that they will be taken back to Spain in Zwarte Piet's bag if they have been naughty.

Over the years many stories have been added, and Zwarte Piet has developed from a rather unintelligent helper into a valuable assistant to the absent-minded saint. In modern adaptations for television, Sinterklaas has developed a Zwarte Piet for every function, such as a head Piet , a navigation Piet to navigate the steamboat from Spain to the Netherlands, a gift-wrapping Piet to wrap all the gifts, and an acrobatic Piet to climb roofs and chimneys.

Traditionally Zwarte Piet's face is said to be black because he is a Moor from Spain. Today, some prefer to say that his face is blackened with soot because he has to climb through chimneys to deliver gifts for Sinterklaas.

Both Zwarte Piet and the holiday remain popular in the Netherlands.