Traditions: Santa Claus versus Sinterklaas
Largely
thanks to Lina, I meet a lot of interesting international people (many of them
taking part in this Advent Calendar). I can't blame these people for having the
idea that Dutch people are renown for stealing; I know we have a history of
overtaking land from poor countries, 'importing' products that locals actually
needed themselves, or just stealing
bikes from fellow citizens. Even THE big Dutch tradition of 'Sinterklaas' on
the 5th of December seems a direct copy of good old Santa Claus and his
Christmas. But wait a minute, here's a big misunderstanding!
Opposed to
popular belief, the internationally celebrated Santa Claus was actually 'invented'
many centuries after the good old Dutch Sinterklaas. Both grey old men look a
lot alike, but in this case it wasn't the Dutch who couldn't come up with an
idea themselves! The word 'Sinterklaas' can already be found in 13th century
writings and comes from a certain 'Saint Nicholas', and Santa Claus didn't show
up until about five centuries later. He only got widely known it his current form
after Coca-Cola adopted him for their commercials in the early 20th century!
There are
plenty of similarities between the celebrations of Sinterklaas and Santa Claus.
On both occasions the presents are a big deal. Sinterklaas is handing them out
because it's the day before his birthday and Santa Claus because eh... dunno...
Coca-Cola wants to remind children of 'being sweet is good'? Another similarity
lies in the amounts of food consumed. The Dutch wouldn't be the Dutch if they
wouldn't take the opportunity to eat heaps of sugar sweet stuff including
marzipan, sugar pigs, foam animals and various kinds of cookies. Things that I
of course highly prefer over stuffed turkey or the likes.
But even
though I'm a terrible materialist, the actual great thing of this celebration
is getting together with relatives and/or friends. The special warm feeling
that many people associate with Christmas, I personally get with Sinterklaas. We
draw lots with names months in advance, so everyone has time to buy presents
and write poems to another. The end-of-year reflection (mentioned by various
predecessors on this blog) you don't need to do yourself: in the poems written about
you you'll be reminded of everything you failed at and all the times you made a
fool out of yourself. You gotta love your family those moments.
I do enjoy
Christmas as a family get-together but in my family Sinterklaas has deeper
roots. I believed in Sinterklaas until I was almost 10 years old. For me
Sinterklaas was the highlight of the year and something to look forward to from
as early as September. I just didn't want to believe my classmates who kept
telling me it was all fake. To me it was real; I didn't want to investigate how
an old man on a horse could ride the roofs of our houses and drop presents
through the chimney. My love for the Sinterklaas celebration got deeply rooted
then and will never go away.
I value
traditions. The longer they go back in
time, the more authentic they feel. I'm sure that if we continue to put as much
effort into Christmas as we're doing the last years (large family buffet
dinners, Lina's continuous efforts to make it the party of the year, etc),
Christmas will become equally important. And hey, it's actually not a
competition, what's wrong with having two big celebrations every December...?!
I wish you
all a joyful December with the people dear to you and with your own traditions.
Leon
 |
| December 5 |
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