Sinter Klaas Celebration

Sinterklaas celebration  
( Karen Sierra )
Sinterklaas celebration is a very important and traditional event in Holland.
Nowadays it is also known in territories of the former Dutch Empire, including South Africa, Aruba, Suriname, Curaçao, Bonaire. Sinterklaas day  is celebrated annually on December the 5^th.

Sinterklaas is an elderly, stately and serious man with white hair and a long full white beard. He wears a long red cape over a traditional white bishop's alb, dons a red mitre, and holds a gold-colored crosier. He carries a big book that tells whether a child has been good or naughty in the past year. He traditionally rides a white gray horse.

A Zwarte Piet is a servant of Sinterklaas, usually an adolescent in blackface with black curly hair, dressed up like a 17-Th century page in a colourfull dress, often with a lace collar, and donning a feathered cap.Sinterklaas and his Black Pete usually carry a bag which contains candy for nice children and a roe, a chimney sweep's broom made of willow branches, used to spank naughty children. Some of the older Sinterklaas songs make mention of naughty children being put in the bag and being taken back to Spain where Sinterklaas originally is from.

Traditionally, in the weeks between his arrival and 5 December, before going to bed, children put their shoes next to the fireplace chimney of the coal-fired stove or fireplace. In modern times, they may put them next to the central heating unit. They leave their shoes with a carrot (Sinterklaas horse like carrots a lot ) and a bowl of water nearby "for Sinterklaas' horse", and the children sing a Sinterklaas song. The next day they will find some candy or a small present in their shoes.

Typical Sinterklaas treats traditionally include: hot chocolate, mandarin oranges, pepernoten (tradicional ducht cookies), letter-shaped pastry filled with almond paste or chocolate letter (the first letter of the child's name made out of chocolate), speculaas (sometimes filled with almond paste), chocolate coins and marzipan figures. Newer treats include kruidnoten (a type of short crust biscuit or gingerbread biscuits) and a figurine of Sinterklaas made of chocolate and wrapped in colored aluminum foil.