Sinterklaas is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. He is depicted as an elderly, stately and serious man with white hair and a long, full beard. He wears a long red cape or chasuble over a traditional white bishop’s alb and a sometimes-red stole. He traditionally rides a white horse.
About Sinterklaas in brief
Sinterklaas is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. He is depicted as an elderly, stately and serious man with white hair and a long, full beard. He wears a long red cape or chasuble over a traditional white bishop’s alb and a sometimes-red stole, dons a red mitre and ruby ring, and holds a gold-coloured crosier. He traditionally rides a white horse. The feast is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on St. Nicholas’ Eve in the Netherlands and on the morning of 6 December, Saint Nicholas Day, in Belgium, Luxembourg and northern France. The figure of Zwarte Piet, a helper dressed in Moorish attire and in blackface, first appeared in print as the nameless servant of Saint Nicholas in Sint-Nikolaas en zijn knecht in 1850. Since the 2010s, the traditions surrounding the holiday of SinterKlaas have been the subject of a growing number of debates, documentaries, protests and violent clashes at large festivals. Some children are told that he is blackened with soot because he has to climb through chimneys to deliver gifts for Sinterkalaas. Some of the older Sinter klaas songs make mention of naughty children being put in Zwarti Piet’s bag and being taken back to Spain.
In modern versions of the Sinter Klaas feast, however, Zwarta Piet no longer carries the roe and children are no longer told that they will be taken back. to Spain if they have been naughty. In the Netherlands, the last horse was called Amerigo, but he was pensioned in 2019 and replaced with a new horse called Oh zo snel. In Belgium, the horse is named Slecht weer vandaag, meaning ‘bad weather today’ or Mooi weer Vandaag. In Luxembourgish, Sankt Nikolaus or Nikolaus in German; and Sint Nicholas in Afrikaans. In Dutch, De Sint, De Goede Sint, and De Goedheiligman in Dutch; Sanikolas in Papiamento; Saint Nicolas in French; Sinteklaas in West Frisian; Sinter.klaos in Limburgs; Saint-Nikloi in West Flemish; Kleeschen and Zinniklos in Luxembourgish; Sinkt. Sint Nikolaus in German. In French, Saint Nicolas is called Saint Nicholas. In German, Saint Nikolaus is known as ‘Sankt. Nikolaus’ and “Sint Nicholas’. In English, Saint. Nicholas is called ‘St. Nicholas.’ in German and ‘Saint Nicholas” in French. In Spanish, ‘Sanikolas’ is the name of the Greek bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey.
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This page is based on the article Sinterklaas published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
