Friday 7 November 2008

Next step... Christmas or...?

Halloween is gone, time to get organized for Christmas.

Haven't done any decorating yet as I should wait until december 6, the Dutch celebrate the birthday of St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas in Dutch) then.

But, who is St. Nicholas?


The Sinterklaas feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Saint Nicholas was a Greek bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey and became the patron saint of children based on various legends that include resurrecting children from death and saving them from prostitution.
Sinterklaas has a long white beard, wears a red bishop's dress and red mitre (bishop's hat), and holds a crosier, a long gold coloured staff with a fancy curled top. Sinterklaas carries a big book with all the children's names in it, which states whether they have been naughty or nice in the past year.
The temper of Sinterklaas also differs in the some regions of the Netherlands and Belgium. In the Netherlands Sinterklaas is usually a nice, forgiving person. In Belgium, on the other hand, Sinterklaas is less forgiving (like he used to be in the Netherlands). He can be quite severe and takes naughty children back to Spain when they were not nice. "Saint-Nicolas" rides a white horse.


The Dutch community in São Paulo celebrates the birthday of Sinterklaas, he is even coming to visit all the Dutch kids here! However, the Brazilians do not know about this Saint/children's friend and focus on Christmas and Santa Claus.

All around the city you already see big christmas trees and enormous decorations, yes, Christmas is a big thing here.

So let's see who wins in our house: Sinterklaas or Santa Claus???





I'll keep you updated!
Have a great weekend, C.

5 comments:

A home far away said...

Oh I can´t wait for Christmas to come, even it looks like we are moving in the middle of December...what were I thinking right:-
It looks like we have found our house, finally, we will know for sure next week.
Have a great weekend
Hugs Gunilla

faire un songe said...

Hoi, Leuk dat je even bij mij kwam buurten, ik zie dat jij nog twijfelt sinterklaas of Kerstman...
Voor jou ook een fijn weekend.
Groetjes

vosgesparis said...

ik zag vandaag de affiches hangen hier in de stad... 16 november komt hij aan ;) .... op de nederlandse teletekst las ik de uitslg van .. wat typisch hollands is volgens de nederlanders.. op nr1 stond Sinterklaas vieren. Need I say more. en dan daarna gewoon lekker kerstmis

LiLi M. said...

Sinterklaas in da house!!!!!

M. said...

ik hoop voor alle kinderen dat de sint toch wint......
daarna is er tijd genoeg voor kerst!!
een heel fijn weekend!
groetjes Manuela

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