Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Sinterklass' Carriage

A fuller view of Sinterklass making his way through Wassenaar on his carriage, with his friends the Zwarte Pieten. Yesterday's comments included a question on the Zwarte Pieten which I'll address tomorrow.

For now, a little more for those who aren't familiar with Sinterklass. He lives year-round in Spain, but visits The Netherlands in mid-November, prior to the St. Nicholas feast eve on Dec. 5. During these weeks he makes rounds on his white horse, Amerigo. The Zwarte Pieten go down the chimney and leave candy in the shoes of children, which are left by the chimney in anticipation of the sweets (or not, if they've been bad or forgot to put in some hay or carrots for Amerigo).

More on the Pieten tomorrow, but if you're interested in the whole story check out the wiki entry or this article.

3 comments:

Lezard said...

Nice to see your pictures, since I was unable this year to greet Sint and the piets when they arrived in Scheveningen (which actually caused a big drama at home with my 4 year-old son!!!!). Especially this year, when it was the 60th birthday of its arrival in The Hague....I look forward to the rest of your story hte coming days!

Jo's-D-Eyes said...

hahah Rich,
How could you NOT post about Sinterklaas? Of course you did. Here in Naarden it was a hugh spectacle too, but we hurried out of the village, not to get stuck into the crouds!

Please come and see my Paris impressions... when we were there at my birthday, I made a lot of shots and I show them in Hugh collages,
You might like to visit my blog:)

Greetings JoAnn

Neva said...

Great to hear of others traditions.