Secret Gifts from Saint Nicholas

My yearly calendar has forgotten to mention many of the wonderful festivities celebrated both here and abroad in December. December 6^th, the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas, is one example of a December remembrance omitted from the blocks of the calendar.

St. Nicholas was born in the Greek village of Patara in Lycia, now known as Antalya province, Turkey. His well to do parents died when he was young, leaving Nicholas quite a bit of money. He is believed to be the patron saint of children and sailors as well as many cities around the world including New York. "In 1809, the New-York Historical Society convened and named Sancte Claus the patron saint of Nieuw Amsterdam, the Dutch name for New York." (1)

Throughout his lifetime Nicholas had a reputation for using his inheritance to help those less fortunate by way of secret gifts. The most well known story may explain where the custom of hanging stockings by the fireplace originated. Upon hearing of a poor man who could not afford a proper dowry for his three daughters, Nicholas, under the cover of darkness, secretly dropped a bag of gold down the chimney. The bag fell into a stocking which had been hung by the fire to dry.

Feast day celebrations for St. Nicholas are as varied as the names he goes by - Sinter Klaas in Holland, Pere Noel in France, or St. Nicholas as he is known in the United States and Luxemburg.

Wearing a bishop's miter and red and white bishop robes and carrying his trademark gold staff, St. Nicholas or Sinter Klaas as he is known locally, makes landfall each year in Amsterdam on a steamer from Spain with his companion Zwarte Piet on the eve of his feast day to the clamor of ringing bells, gun salutes and thousands of screaming youngsters.

According to Dorothy Gladys Spicer's book, 46 Days of Christmas, feast day celebrations for the saint are two-fold in Holland. First in the early evening hours on December 5^th, Zwarte Piet's black-gloved hand opens the door a crack and tosses a handful of pepernotens (hard, round spice cakes) across the floor. After snatching up the spice cakes the children must then account for their good or in some cases naughty behavior that year.

Spicer goes on to explain how later that same night, St. Nicholas and Zwarte Piet travel upon horses from rooftop to rooftop throughout Holland. Zwarte Piet slips down each chimney, so that St. Nicholas doesn't get soil his fine robe with soot, to retrieve any presents left for St. Nicholas' horse (a lump of sugar, pumpernickel, a carrot or wisp of hay) before leaving either some pink and white cream-filled candies, colored marzipans or spiced honey gingerbreads in the wooden shoes prearranged by the children in a row next to their chimneys.

In France, on the eve of his feast day, St. Nicholas' feast day is celebrated primarily in Alsace, Lorraine, Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Brittany. There legend explains how three little boys wandering into the city alone get lost and seek shelter at a butcher shop. The butcher is said to have killed the boys and stuffed them in a large salting tub. Later, St. Nicholas arrives at the door and tells the butcher to open the tub. When the tub is opened St Nicholas tells the boys to rise up and return to their parents. Then St. Nicholas turned the butcher into Pére Fouettard and condemned him to follow in shame wherever St. Nicholas went.

On the eve of St. Nicholas' feast day, the children put their shoes near the chimney before settling in bed as is done in Holland. They awaken to shoes brimming with sweet treats and ribbon-tied birch twigs, reminders that they should behave and beware of the evil Pére Fouettard.

In the United States, many churches and communities having a Dutch heritage celebrate St. Nicholas' feast day. Oftentimes, St. Nicholas will arrive during a parade with Zwarte Pieten. After tossing out candy along the parade route, St. Nicholas will personally greet the children, offer them advice on being naughty and nice, and give them special treats.

As in Holland, Luxemburg's long bearded St. Nicholas is dressed in a red robe wearing a bishop's miter. On the Sunday preceding Neklosdag, the Feast of St. Nicholas, the Grand Duchy welcomes both St. Nicholas and his companion, Hoesecker, into the towns and villages. They are then escorted to a horse-drawn carriage for a triumphal procession to the Town Hall. All along the procession route children beg the saint for bonbons while singing the following:

Good St. Nicholas

O, good St. Nicholas, patron of school childrenBring me bonbons for my little basket.I want to be good, like a lamb,To learn my lessons, so I'll get bonbons.O, good St. Nicholas, O, good, O, goodSt. Nicholas.

Upon arriving at their destination, Hoesecker, on St. Nicholas's instructions, gives all the good children paper bags stuffed with apples, cakes and of course, bonbons!

In an effort to continue traditional St. Nicholas Feast Day celebrations in our home each year, I drag out my cookie sheets each December 5^th and bake up a batch of bonbon cookies while my husband fills any pre-arranged shoes left by our children outside their bedroom door with a handful of candy.

"Saint Nicholas." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 28 Nov 2007, 01:53 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 28 Nov 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saint_Nicholas&oldid=174273771. Legend of St. Nicholas. Retrieved November 27 2007. http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=370