Kidscorner

Wednesday 5 December 2007

Sinterklaas

Today is the birthday of Sinterklaas or St nicholas. Sinterklaas is celebrated in my homeland the Netherlands. He arrived in the Netherlands recently, as shown on the video (dutch) with his helpers black Peter. As you can see he and his black Peters even learned some modern dancing.

All the children already put their shoe in front of the central heater for days, with a carrot in it for the horse of sinterklaas. He will travel over the roofs of all the houses, pick up the food for his horse and put some goodies in exchange. Tomorrow all the children who were good last year get a lot of presents from Sinterklaas.



Luckily here in New Zealand we didn't have to miss out completely. Sinterklaas came to Christchurch in the beginning of the week before he visited Holland. We met him at Unlimited school, because Lia (on the right) a marvellous parent, is teaching Dutch at this school. Mayke is one of her students. Anyway some of the teachers were in his big book and they had to sit on his knee. He spoke to them about their behaviour in the last year ,which was all good of course. He also brought some presents for the children.


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15 comments:

  1. How wonderful to see the happiness on so many faces both in the Netherlands and in New Zealand too.

    One has to participate (no matter the age) and in happiness - we owe to St Nicholas.

    An enjoyable video too.

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  2. It feels so nice to hear about various traditions.
    Thanks so much for sharing

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  3. That was so much fun for you! Does Santa also bring gifts at Christmas?

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  4. Doesn't he get a little warm dressed like that this time of year?

    And where does he get that cool, Popesque hat?

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  5. Peter sint is a lot of fun and in Holland we are all like children

    Your welcome rambler Must be very different to yours

    No No Wynn Christmas is the domain of Father Christmas

    Baba Sinterklaas comes from Spain so he is used to dress warmly in the sun He is tough. The hat is a bishop hat and he owes it.

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  6. Very interesting post,Marja! "Happy Sinterklaas".Have a nice day!

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  7. he marja sinterklaas is eigenlijk op 6 december gestorven maar ja dat zeg je niet tegen de kinderen die geloven daarom zal hij zijn verjaardag op 6 december vieren. oorspronkelijk komt hij uit mira in Turkije.
    Van voor dat de turken daar woonden en is het je wel eens opgevallen dat bij coo in de ardennen een sinterklaaskapel staat?
    Zou die daar ook komen?
    Maartje

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  8. I agree with Rambler, it is so interesting to hear about the traditions in other countries.
    Very nice and informitive post, Marja, thank you!

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  9. Always nice to read someone else's
    veiws on Santa. 5 more sleeps and i'll be in NZ.

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  10. Thanks for another interesting post. What a wonderful tradition.

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  11. When I was 10 years old,I wore the attire of santa claus in school for a christmas function.I had to remain in that costume for 3 long hours.It was very hot.Because I had to put a big beard ,mask long dress and pillow on my stomach.
    Thanks for the post and video.
    Good day :)

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  12. oh maartje ik niet dat 6 dec de overlijdens data was en ik wist ook niet van die kapel Bedankt voor de informatie

    Thanks Little Wing

    Steve i will warn the Kiwies

    It always was a lot of fun

    poor Deepak and that in india that must have been very hot. the good thing is you probably made some other kids smile.

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  13. Dag Marja,

    Sinterklaas is ook in Belgie geweest. En dit jaar was er wel iets heel unieks. Er lag een doosje met Belgische chocolade en een boodschap : Marja is dit jaar heel braaf geweest en aangezien Sinterklaas geschenken brengt voor brave kinderen heeft hij ook iets voor U meegebracht.

    Mocht je in België langskomen; je kan je Sinterklaas geschenk daar komen ophalen.

    Ik hoop dat je nog vele jaren de typische Belgische en Nederlandse tradities kan vieren in Nieuw Zeeland

    Groetjes
    Erik

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  14. My comment comes a liitle bit late but that's caused by the fact that the harddisk crashed for the second time in 6 months. Santa brought me a new one and next week I get my main pc back. How nice to see that Saint Nicholas visited New Zealand too. :-)
    The TV Saint in this video is the actor Bram van der Vlucht.

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  15. Such a wonderful tradition, thanks for sharing

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Thank you!!