Today is Dec. 6, SinterKlaas Day. The Sint is a popular character that looks similar to the better known Santa Claus, although many say that the figure of Santa Claus (or Father Christmas) and his role during Christmas, is largely based on our Sinterklaas. It is actually a festival celebrated extensively in the European low countries (the Nederlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and northern France).
The traditional story tells you that Sinterklaas lives in Madrid, Spain. Every year in November he travels with his steam boat called Pakjesboot 12 and he always chooses a different harbor to arrive. Unlike Santa Claus who is mostly punctual and organised, Sinterklaas always needs the help of his best friend Zwarte Pietento remind him everything he is supposed to do.
The story now told is that Zwarte Pieten have black face because they have to go through the chimney to bring the gift to the kids. Before they always had actors with blackface make-up to play the Zwarte Pieten but in the recent years there have been several major protestant in the Nederlands against the “blackface” as they feel it is a form of racism.
This summer they transformed the vacant historical railway halls next to my house into a vibrant market. Today Sinterklaas came to the market. I saw so many kids were already here waiting for Sinterklaas’s arrival.
They offer the Sinterklaas special pancakes with speculaas (a Dutch and Belgian spiced shortcrust biscuit). Yum.
Here was the typical gift set from Sinterklaas, you can see the Sinterklaas-shaped speculaas cookie, Zwarte Pieten shaped chocolate and some other candies.
Kids are getting ready for Sinterklaas! The market is well prepared so that all the kids can create their own doodle arts here.
Now the Sint is here! Seems that this year’s Zwarte Piet appearance is adjusted a bit to have a modern (and political correct). Zwarte Pieten always has a big bag with all the candies and gifts inside.
Kids got the same hat as the Sint and they wrote their names on it so that Sint can ask them “Have you been a nice kid this year?”
Because I have been a good kid for the whole year, I also got some gift from the Sint. 😀
Later on, I saw another Sint and Zwarte Piet inside a fries shop, maybe some people will protest this Zwarte Piet later 😀 Anyway, Happy SinterKlaas Day!
今天是SinterKlaas圣尼古拉节，这可能是欧洲低地国家的孩子们最喜欢的一天。我们都知道英语国家白胡子的圣诞老人形象，英语国家的小朋友要等到圣诞节才有糖吃，而在荷兰比利时，12月6号就吃上了，对小朋友来说，这个节日也快重要过圣诞节。
荷兰语区的人们相信SinterKlaas就是现在被大家熟悉的住在北极骑雪橇的圣诞老人的原型。 乍一看他们两人长得挺像的，但是其实还是有差。首先SinterKlaas住在马德里（虽然西班牙人表示他们并不知道），每年11月他从西班牙坐蒸汽船“礼物袋12号”千里迢迢来到荷兰和比利时的某个码头登陆给这里的小朋友带礼物。再来，SinterKlaas打扮也不一样，他戴十字冠帽并持有金光闪闪的手杖，行头很酷。
还有个特别的地方就是圣诞老人通常作者迷路拉的雪橇很准时到达，而SinterKlaas这个人有点糊涂，需要一个叫做黑皮特的助手帮忙打理一切。包括发礼物，最典型的形象就是黑皮特背着一大袋礼物。黑皮特之所以叫黑皮特是因为他需要钻进烟囱里面给小朋友礼物。很长一段时间的传统都是由黑人来扮演黑皮特，最近几年很多荷兰人对此表示抗议，为什么要黑人来当助手，他们觉得这是变相种族歧视，SinterKlaas来之前，在鹿特丹和阿姆斯特丹还有很大的抗议游行。还好这并没有影响到Sint的到来。
今天，Sint也来到了我家门口的一个由废弃火车修理站改建成的市集。市集里面做了不少准备，有了很多彩色的装饰，还给小孩准备了涂色的彩色笔和卡片，这样他们可以把自己涂好的画拿给Sint看。我发现今天他们还为了节日特地做了比利时教堂饼干口味的煎饼，还挺好吃。焦糖饼干也是节日很重要的一部分，去年我在法语课上过的节，老师还准备了橘子，饼干，巧克力之类的。
吃橘子也是传统，因为Sint是西班牙来的嘛（^.^） 到来两点半，Sint来了，今天的助手比较“政治正确”，不是黑人，只是把脸涂黑了一点。小朋友都去排队跟Sint聊天，这个时候Sint会问你今年一年有没有很乖？因为只有乖孩子才有糖吃。等小孩子聊得差不多了，我也过去问Sint可以不可以照照片，他人很好的样子，还问我有没有乖，然后也给了我一包礼物，开心。 后来我路过家门口一家薯条店，发现Sint也来这里了。这里的Sint好像比较传统，助手还是黑人来扮演，不知道一会会不会有人抗议。
