Sinterklaus

Sinterklaus arrives in Holland on November 12th on a steam powered boat. He says until December 6th. On the night of December 5th he visits each home leaving chocolate letters, cookies and candy. Sinterklaus is Saint Nicolas who lived around 300 AD. He was the Archbishop of Myra located on an island in present day Turkey. His parents were wealthy and died when he was a young man. He gave his fortune to the poor and entered the priesthood. Legend has him putting bags of gold in the shoes of poor maidens needing a dowry and saving sailors on the ocean. In this picture Sinterklaus is on his horse coming down a narrow street in Dordrecht with the Grote Kerk in the back ground.

Sinterklaus waves to all the children on the street and in the windows.

Sinterklaus rides a white horse named Amerigo which means grey or white horse. In Belgium the horse is named "Slecht Weer Vandaag" which means "bad weather today". the Belgiums are funny. Sinterklaus is surrounded by Zwarte Piets (Black Petes). These are servants that travel with Sinterklaus. They have a large bag like a gunny sack filled with pepernoten (pepper nuts) which are small round cookies with the taste of the cookies on delta airlines. They give the cookies to the children. When empty, the bag is big enough to put naughty children in to take back to Spain where Sinterklaus lives.  In 1973-4 most of the kids were afraid of Zwarte Piet because he was such a tease.

Most of the children dress up like Zwarte Peit and some like Sinterklaus.