Sinterklaas has arrived

The Cafe is a good place to share one of our national traditions.

Today, the 14th of November, Sinterklaas has arrived here in The Netherlands. He comes by boat from Spain.
Sinterklaas is the basis for the North American figure of Santa Claus. [I bet most of you didn't know that]
The big day here is the 5th of December.

from Wikipedia:
Traditionally, in the weeks between his arrival and December 5, before going to bed children put their shoes next to the fireplace chimney of the coal fired stove or fireplace, or, in modern times, next to the central heating, with a carrot or some hay in it and a bowl of water "for Sinterklaas' horse," and sing a Sinterklaas song; the next day they will find some candy or a small present in their shoes, supposedly thrown down the chimney by a Zwarte Piet or Sinterklaas himself. When a house has no chimney, Sinterklaas is said to enter using his special key that fits on every door in the Netherlands.

On Wikipedia you can read more about Sinterklaas here

And here's a picture of today's arrival:

iapyx said:

[...] with a carrot or some hay in it and a bowl of water "for Sinterklaas' horse

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I like that idea. Growing up in Alaska I guess I should have put some lichen out for the reindeer instead of leaving cookies for Santa - judging by his (Westernized) physique, he sure didn't need to eat any more cookies...

iapyx said:

....The big day here is the 5th of December.

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Well here it's the 6th of December...

iapyx said:

Today, the 14th of November, Sinterklaas has arrived here in The Netherlands.

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I went shopping yesterday and Christmas is in full swing in some shops here already too. It used to be just one month, not a good month and a half like now.

Here in Canada, Santa will make his first highly publicized appearance during Toronto's 105th annual Santa Claus Parade in mid November.

The parade will be through the downtown core tomorrow afternoon and features 26 animated floats and 22 marching bands. Organizers expect about 200,000 people to line the route as the big guy in red waves to the expectant children. It takes over 1500 volunteers to pull off this event every year.

It's the longest running children's parade in the world and is broadcast across North America and as far away as New Zealand, Norway, and Ireland.

I'm told that on 3 occasions over 250 million Russians were watching the parade on local state owned TV stations.

If it airs in your area, I can highly recommend it as worthwhile watching.

LumenHound said:

It's the longest running children's parade in the world and is broadcast ... as far away as New Zealand, ...

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Sorry, can't say I've ever heard of it.

Icarus said:

Well here it's the 6th of December...

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I know that, you're from Belgium. We're neighbours

This is a Good Thing, since Sinterklaas/Santa Claus doesn't need to visit the whole world in one night.

TorchBoy said:

I went shopping yesterday and Christmas is in full swing in some shops here already too. It used to be just one month, not a good month and a half like now.

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The funny thing is that Sinterklaas (5th Dec) is the basis for the North American figure of Santa Claus and that the North American cultural influence has brought Santa Claus (back) to the Netherlands but a few weeks later and so practically we have two times Sinterklaas:

- 14th of November till the 5th of December
- Around Christmas (25th-26th of December)

Although the appearance of Sinterklaas is a little bit different from Santa Claus as you can see in the photo of the first message.