Sinterklaas is in The Hague

I recently noticed a poster that read Sinterklaas was going to be on the old shopping street close to our home, today at 1:45pm. When the time came, I convinced Ross to put aside his homework so we could go see Sinterklaas.

Sinterklaas is a very special man to the Dutch. He is not what the Dutch call Santa Claus; they are two different people. In fact, Santa is here too, but according to my work mates, "nobody believes in him." Sinterklaas, on the other hand, is the real deal.

Every year around this time, he arrives from Spain on a steamboat. He lives in Spain the rest of the year, and if I was Mrs. Claus, I'd be pretty jealous. I've never been to the North Pole, but I've been to Spain, and I'm pretty sure I know where I'd prefer to spend my time off.

Sinterklaas' journey here is tracked on the news, and apparently he has terrible luck every year, and something always goes wrong. In previous years, he has had the map upside down, or was going in the wrong direction, or has forgotten all of his necessities back in Spain. Somehow, however, he always manages to get it together just in time. Once his steamboat arrives, he is publicly welcomed by the mayor of a different Dutch city each year. I don't know where he arrived this year, but he made his way to The Hague today.

But Sinterklaas is not alone. First of all, he rides a beautiful white horse named Amerigo. Also, he has many helpers, known as Zwarte Piets. Zwarte Piets wear 16th century colourful Spanish clothes, but their most recognizable feature is their black faces. Supposedly they are black because they have the task of climbing down the chimneys and they are permanently covered in soot.

For us sensitive North Americans, the idea of seeing white people paint their faces black seems . . . hmmm . . . "inapropriate", but it's all a part of the Dutch holiday spirit.

When we made our way down to the street, I don't know what we were expecting, but I definitely didn't expect for all the kids to be dressed up. Some of them were dressed as Sinterklaas, but most of them were dressed as Zwarte Piets, complete with painted black faces.

We had been warned ahead of time by our Canadian neighbour, but it was still quite surprising to see these little blond-haired, blue-eyed, black-faced kids.


All the kids had Sinterklaas sacks, and we learned later that the Zwarte Piets hand out cookies. (Or, if you don't have a Sinter-sack, the Zwarte Piets will just throw cookies into your purse :) It was pretty chaotic. Obviously the kids were really excited. As everyone was waiting for Sinterklaas to arrive, many of the kids started throwing cookies at each other (see video.)

Finally, the event started to happen. I thought Sinterklaas was just going to be saying hello, but it was a full out parade! There were hundreds of Zwarte Piets singing, dancing, playing music, and throwing cookies in my purse.



This one grabbed me and started dancing and automatically posed for the photo:


It was by far the most chaotic, dangerous parade I've ever seen. The street was so narrow, I think it's a Christmas miracle that no one was run over.

Finally Sinterklaas arrived, on the beautiful Amerigo. Note that Sinterklaas is in much better physical heath than Santa Claus.


For someone that spends all year in Spain, he's pretty pale. Sinterklaas must be wearing lots of sunscreen.

It was very fun.