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| Sinterklaas visits Leiden |
It’s dark, cold,
misty, and I’m standing outside of my house with a grocery delivery crate full
of presents. I carefully weigh my
options. My head instinctively looks to
my right. The Dutch house we live in is
similar to the brownstones of Boston
or Brooklyn – tall, thin, and we share walls with our
neighbors. “Well, I could ask him. Perhaps this will be the olive branch I’ve
been looking for,” I think to myself.
I’ve spoken to the right-side adjoining neighbor once. After months of listening to his fabulous
piano playing through the walls, I tried to give him a compliment as he was
entering his home. He has an alarm,
parks his bike indoors, and ducks his head to avoid conversation. Everything about him implies introvert, but
yet, I attempted determined conversation one sunny afternoon as we were both
entering our homes. With his wild grey
hair and thick glasses, he just looks
like a concert pianist. He was trying to
shove his bike into his foyer as quickly as he could. “Excuse me?
You play piano, right?” He stared
at me and his eyebrows furrowed.
“Piano?” I repeat, and I make an air-piano motion with my fingers. He still just stares at me. “It’s very good, I enjoy hearing it through
the wall.” He shakes his head, shoves
his bike indoors, and shuts the door with a heavy thud. I instantly became paranoid. Babies crying all hours of the day and night
and/or the agonizing responses to said crying by sleep-deprived mother might
not be as melodic through the walls in response. Besides, for all I know, he’s the principal
pianist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam
and I just gave him an ignorant compliment.
He could be. He’s that good. And I’m that clueless.
I sigh and look the
other direction. Two doors down is a
girl whose mom is American and her Dad is Dutch. She’s nice, does not mind speaking English to
me, and I watched her dog for her once.
She was clearly desperate, as her dog just had surgery and she had an
emergency meeting at work. She rang my
doorbell, the kids were screaming, my two large dogs were barking, and her poor
tiny dog had one of those lampshade things on her neck. With uncertainty on both sides of the
exchange, she shuffled her dog inside my house while I, with Little Man on my hip,
corralled my dogs upstairs. Baby Girl
dizzily sprinted from the front door to the kitchen, ridiculously excited about
our new furry visitor. Even my
neighbor’s black cat had decided to join in on the party and wandered into the
house as well, but after eyeing the conditions of her canine sister’s
caretaker’s home, did not approve and scattered back out the front door. It was a zoo.
The dog, probably scared out of her wits, peed on my rug and I put her
in the backyard. Minutes later, I found
the tiny dog had escaped both her lampshade and our backyard. I called V in a frenzy, “Our only friend on the street! She trusted me with her dog and now I’ve gone and lost the dog!!” I wailed. This was the height of the summer, with the
limitless sunshine and equally limitless rain, everyone’s back gardens had
turned into jungles – complete with tangled, thorny vines and swarms of
spiders. The dog, with the help of the
man three doors down, was spotted back her own yard and my husband, using a Swiffer
duster as a sword, cutting through the spiderwebs, trespassing through back
gardens, bravely rescued the poor little dog from her own yard, put the
lampshade back on, and Baby Girl fed her treats as an apology and celebration
in our kitchen. Hum. Maybe I could ask her. That whole event ended well, at least. She’s probably my best bet to help me with
this project, and I started to walk towards her door.
At that exact
moment, the neighbor directly to our left opened his door. According to the American-Dutch neighbor, a
family lives there. The parents live on
the bottom floor, and their two grown boys live on the top floor. A common living area is in-between. I’m hoping it’s the Mom or Dad, but instead
it’s one of the grown sons. I’ve seen
him a handful of times, usually when I’m wearing whatever shoes are by the door
(typically my husband’s) to throw a dirty diaper into the large trash bins
outside. He is tall, with longish
dark hair, and probably in his mid-20s.
I saw him affectionately kiss his girlfriend goodbye one Sunday
afternoon around 2:00 p.m. We had been to Home Depot (okay, Praxis – the
Dutch equivalent) and I was planting flowers in our front garden. She leaned in, wet hair and all, gave him a
kiss, then hopped on her bike and rode away.
The bike-of-shame is infinitely more efficient than the walk-of-shame. I watched her go, stared at the closed door,
and just reminisced about my youth for a minute while quotes from Old School distractedly
flashed through my head, “Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don’t know, I don’t
know if we’ll have enough time. . .” Sigh. Youth.
Anyway, so he’s
walking out his door, ready to unlock his bike and speed off to whatever
good-looking 25-year-olds do at 6:00 p.m.
on Wednesday nights and I stop him.
Here’s my chance! “Hi! Uh, I know we’ve never met, but I’m Celeste
and I live next door, and so, I read somewhere that Sinterklaas is supposed to
leave presents on the doorstep tonight, ring the doorbell, and then he just
runs away. So. Uh.
Will you take this crate of presents, wait about 30 seconds, ring our
doorbell, and then just uh, run away?” I deliver the whole speech without
taking a breath and smile brightly. He
looks at me and laughs. But not really
laughs. More like the laugh that sounds
like air just coming out of your nose. “Sure,”
he says. “Uh, okay! Thank you!!” I respond, a little too giddy. Smooth, real smooth. Perhaps Beethoven next door would have been
more impressed with my American family’s noble attempt at partaking in their
Dutch customs. Or perhaps I have this
whole leaving-presents-on-the-doorstep-and-asking-a-neighbor-to-assist all
wrong. (Dang you, Wikipedia!) Oh well, too late, now. I hand over the crate and hurry back inside.
My kids are being so
loud and rowdy, I realize I’m the only one who heard the doorbell ring,
anyway. 6:00
pm , is the absolute worst time of the day to try and do anything
productive with the kids. But I hear it,
and excitedly say to Baby Girl, “I think Sinterklaas is here!” and we open the
door. She’s so thrilled and we bring the
presents into the living room to unwrap.
Her attention is short-lived and I can’t help but think about why Santa
Clause comes at night when the kids
are asleep and then families open
presents in the morning when the
kids are happy. Compared to Sinterklaas, Santa Claus is a
genius.
That was Pakjesavond,
(package evening), the evening of
December 5th and the presents on the doorstep represent Sinterklaas’
final farewell. After delivering all the
toys to the children of The Netherlands that night, he supposedly hops back
onto his steamboat with his Zwarte Piets and returns to Spain . Spain ? Steamboat?
Zwarte Piets? Final
Farewell? What the heck, you say? Okay – let me back up and explain, or at
least try to.
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| Sinterklaas arrives in Leiden by boat |
Baby Girl first met
Sinterklaas at noon on November 24,
the Saturday after (our) Thanksgiving.
There were hundreds of children and parents gathered on the Beestmarkt
(a part of Leiden where originally
cattle were sold at market – so it’s one of the few largely open and paved
spaces in town). The pavilion is not far
from the train station and there are docks in the adjacent canal where tourist
boat rides usually depart from. Dutch
Sinterklaas songs played loudly through the speakers and there was a festive
feel to the air, although as time went on, the moods of the children tipped
rapidly towards unruly and frustrated as Sinterklaas’ hour-late arrival
overlapped with most of the children’s lunch and naptimes. With happy hearts, we all celebrated the
moment the bridge lifted and Sinterklaas’ boat arrived into the
canal. The children cheered and sang as
the boat, which held Sinterklaas and his gaggle of Zwarte Piets, docked. They waved and danced and Sinterklaas exited
the boat and mounted his white horse, Amerigo, who was awaiting him at the end
of the dock. He wore a ceremonial bishop’s
outfit complete with a red alb and mitre.
From atop his horse, he nodded wisely and regally at the children, but
definitely did not break into a smile, at least not one with teeth. I imagine a family reunion in the summer,
and Sinterklaas shaking his head in annoyance at his overweight, cheery, loud
American cousin who drinks way too much Coca-Cola.
According to
history, Sinterklaas is based on a Greek Bishop, Saint Nicholas, who was born
in 271 and lived in Myra (present-day
Turkey ). In 1087, his relics were secretly moved to Bari ,
Italy Kingdom
of Aragon Spain
until the 18th century.
Because the remains of St. Nicholas were in Bari
(then a Spanish city), the tradition is that Sinterklaas comes from Spain .
The first known
reference to Sinterklaas arriving in Holland
on a steamship dates back to a children’s book written in 1850, by a
schoolteacher named Jan Schenkman. The
steamboat in 1850 was a new invention and perhaps Schenkman introduced the
image while building upon the fact that St. Nicholas is also known at the
patron of sailors.
Santa Clause enlists
helps from hard-working, serious elves who are so dedicated to their
professions; they never seem to take a holiday to leave the North Pole. Sinterklaas, for all his stoicism, is
assisted by the mischievous Zwarte Piets.
The Zwarte Piets play in a marching band, constantly give boat-loads
(literally) of cookies and candies to any and every child the encounter (at
least before the American mother steps in with a panic – no more sugar, Piet!),
and they supposedly act as Sinterklaas’ spies to determine which children are
naughty or nice.
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| Waag Huis - Sinterklaas' Home in Leiden |
The few weeks after arriving
in Leiden on the boat were like a never-ending
celebration. Baby Girl made art projects
at school and sang Dutch Sinterklaas songs. Supposedly, at anytime between Sinterklaas’
arrival and departure, kids can put their shoes by the fire in hopes of
receiving small gifts. Sinterklaas took
up residence in the Waag Huis (Weigh House) near the Stadhuis (Town Hall.)
during this time. Baby Girl first
visited him with her Dutch preschool, and then we attended an Expat-only event
(marketed as Sinterklaas speaks English!) one Sunday morning. We all stood outside the Waag Huis freezing
in the wind, as we waited (again) for Sinterklaas’ arrival. (I guess he’s on Spanish time?) It was a nice event and I’m glad we
attended. The Zwarte Piets were quite
friendly, handing out sugar to Baby Girl and even Little Man. Sinterklaas’ house and furnishings were a bit
on the shabby and dated side. The
carpets were dirty from all the crushed Kruidnoten (tiny cookies) from days
prior. I recollected the perfectly built
and expensively marketed winter wonderland scenes currently present in every
American shopping mall. This was a far,
far, far cry from any of that, but at the same time, spending a hundred dollars
on pictures with Santa was not what this was about, either. Baby Girl chased Sinterklaas around the event
– but when he turned to her, she kind of shied away. Throughout the event, she was pleased to give
him high fives, but at the end of our visit, as we were almost out the door,
she suddenly turned to V and I and said that she wanted to give Sinterklaas a
hug goodbye, and she did. While
tradition says that you can leave your shoes by the fireplace any evening between Sinterklaas’
arrival and his departure on Pakjesavond, we limited ourselves and only left
the kids’ shoes out once, and left some water for his horse (Sorry, Amerigo - we didn’t have any
carrots). The next morning, Baby Girl was excited to see
the empty container after Amerigo drank it, and the Kruidnoten (still wrapped
in the package, but then again, presents in shoes goes along with the Dutch
disregard for those things germy. . .) left by Sinterklaas.
Upon his departure,
the whole country shifts its focus from Sinterklaas to Christmas. While I was afraid I was never going to be able
to buy a real Christmas tree or candy canes after searching for these things in preparation for hosting my book
club Christmas party on December 1st, I realized that I was just too
early. After December 5th,
Christmas tree (Kerstboom) vendors popped up around the foot of the De Valk
windmill in town, random street corners, and even some grocery stores. The
train station, previously decorated with white lights, added large glowing
Christmas trees after December 5th.
I actually enjoy this idea – of separating the children’s celebration of
gifts and fun from the actual celebration of the religious and more
family-oriented holiday. Plus it makes the
Christmas season and celebration last all month long. With
the snow falling and cold temperatures, it just puts everyone in a happy
mood. Maybe I should bake some cookies
for my neighbors.
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