Tudo Certinho: The bad children go to Spain

So this past weekend was the feast of St. Nicholas in the Netherlands, Flemish Belgium, and the former Dutch territories in the Caribbean. We can say it’s a Dutch thing. The Dutch, in their ingenuous and history-shaping ways, have given us “the Big Apple” as New York City’s nickname (see previous post), memorable World Cup final matches, and now….Santa Claus!

Saint Nicholas is historically the patron saint of the city of Amsterdam. Before that he was/is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, and children (straight from Wikipedia folks). That Amsterdam is a city whose riches and fortunes were underpinned by the trade of merchants and sailors might explain why a 4^th century bishop from Turkey ended up being the patron saint of a northern European capital. As such, Saint Nicholas came to be known as Sinterklaas in Dutch and therefore, the Dutch are credited to have handed down the tradition of Santa Claus. The names of course are similar, but the imagery of Sinterklaas and Santa Claus are nearly identical as well. Saint Nicholas/Sinterklaas is an old Caucasian man with a long white beard dressed in red. He comes by on the 5^th or 6^th of December every year and delivers presents to all the Dutch children.

Yes, yes, pretty much the same story as Santa Claus. However, I am a huge fan of the Dutch uniqueness to SinterKlaas. First off, he lives in Spain. Yes, SinterKlaas lives in Spain. Theoretically then, you can GPS the location of where Sinterklaas lives. Perhaps Sinterklaas is paranoid about the damaging effects of global warming in the North Pole? Maybe he studied Catalan as a second language and wanted more practice in the greater Barcelona area? I don’t know. All I know is that according to the Sinterklaas story, he lives in Spain.

Second, Sinterklaas comes every year to the Netherlands on a steamboat. When I was in Germany last year I learned about the term “blue banana” for the first time. It is a densely populated urban corridor that arches like a banana (don’t know why it’s blue however) from southern England all the way to Milan. Belgium and the Netherlands fall entirely in that populated cluster so you can imagine the traffic. Having personally sat in long hours of traffic in Belgium and throughout the Netherlands, I’ll admit that it might seem odd for Sinterklaas to come by steamboat, but in the end it’s pretty dam smart.

Third, Sinterklaas comes to the Netherlands every year in early December and it accompanied by his little helpers called “Black Peter” who help distribute presents. These tend to be white Dutch folks who paint their faces black and dress up in court jester suits. The black could symbolize the coal on their faces from sliding down chimneys……..or………a historical reference to the colonial and slavery footprint of the Netherlands. I’ll let you decide.

Finally, after delivering the presents to the good kids, the story goes that Sinterklaas takes the bad children with him back to Spain. This was the showstopper for me. Being bad means going to Spain? Sign me up! While Spain is typically where bad study abroad students go to party and drink beer at the Oveja Negra, how can a trip to Spain be a punishment by any other standards?

Behave - or else go back to Spain and talk with a lithp

I was one week early in Sinterklaas’s book, since just the weekend before I took a quick trip to Barcelona. It was my first time back since my junior year of college semester abroad in 2003. More to come on that in a bit. But in brief, it is still the same amazing city seen from a new yet still reminiscent perspective; hence the hilarity of the Sinterklaas story. While I did search for Sinterklaas this past weekend I admittedly came up short in seeing him. Instead, I did see some familiar faces and enjoy the company of co-workers from different projects who were visiting Amsterdam for the weekend to crash out and party like rock stars.

No sign of Sinterklaas in Dam Square