Sinterklaas / Saint Nicholas Day (December 5th)
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Amigo97
Sinterklaas is a Dutch/Belgian Children's festival that happens every year on December 5th. Traditionally, in mid-November, two weeks before his celebrated Feast Day, Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands by boat from his home in Spain.
Coming with his white horse (Amerigo) he arrives in the Netherlands with his helpers, the Pieten (Peter), to signify the start of the holiday season. This Sinterklaas tradition is broadcasted live on television. Each year Sinterklaas arrives in a different city.
During the two weeks before his birthday, Sinterklaas rides across rooftops at night on his white horse, listening through chimneys for good children and leaving them treats and sweets in their shoes. The build-up is to the eve before his Feast Day (Sinterklaasavond) on 5 December, when Sinterklaas delivers gifts to good children and coal to the naughty.
On Sinterklaasavond, children anxiously wait for Sinterklaas to knock on their door. Although Sint usually flies by the time they answer, a sack full of gifts awaits them on their doorstep. Following Sinterklaas‘ visit, each member of the family takes turns handing out presents and unwrapping them. Names are printed on each gift, and almost every present is accompanied by a humorous poem about the gift’s recipient, sometimes teasing them about their good and bad habits.
Families celebrate Sinterklaas‘ Feast by singing songs and indulging in a feast of their own, which consists mainly of sweets like marzipan, chocolate initials, pepernoten (ginger biscuits) and hot chocolate with whipped cream.
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Vay021
Sorry but it's not 5 December but 6 December ;-)
Shiro from Slowly
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Coming soon!
Amigo97
Shiro from Slowly: Gorgeous design! Looks like the one I previewed above here and how I remember it from my childhood :) Thanks.
Lufox
Shiro from Slowly: This is so cutee! I love it. Can't wait to have it in my collection and put it on a letter. Thank you!
Shiro from Slowly
Merged in a post:
SAINT NICHOLAS DAY
Lufox
Saint Nicholas Day
aka Mikuláš (in Czech Republic) + in other countries
On the 5th of December Mikuláš, čert and anděl (Saint Nicholas, the Devil and the Angel) goes around and asks about kids - how they behaved during the year.
Mikuláš is the wise, old man with a book which has all the childrens' names with good and bad deeds marked to them. He does the talking.
Devil is there to scare them and remind them that if they won't be good next year he will take them to the hell.
Angel protects them and gives them the presents after they tell Mikuláš how will they get better in all the stuff he has written about them and sing a song, play a musical instrument, recite a poem,...
It's a big thing in every childs life.
It's an enormous tradition which is happening not only outside but also directly at homes, in kindergartens, schools and similar events.
The trio brings the kids mostly sweets, fruit and/or small presents if they were good and potato or coal if they were troublesome.
I know the Czech Republic is not the only country celebrating this big holiday. It might differ but the core is the same I would say.
According to Wikipedia, the others are:
• Croatia (Sveti Nikola)
• Hungary (Mikulás)
• Poland (Święty Mikołaj)
• Romania (Moș Nicolae)
• Slovakia (Svätý Mikuláš)
• Slovenia (Slovene: Sveti) Miklavž)
• Ukraine (Sviatyi Mykolai)
• Belgium (Dutch: Sinterklaas)
As I've seen there already is one for Netherlands in the proposals so if you could please consider making this for us aswell.
It's a beloved holiday with long tradition that almost every child has memory of. It doesn't matter if it's a big city or small one, the trio always finds a way to every kid.
Thank you 💕
Yann2
Nicely done, Lufox!
Well researched and presented. I saw your comment on the Dutch Sinterklaas stamp proposal, and followed your link to visit here.
While you asked Shiro to merge that topic and yours, since the stamp is already in production stage I think the best we could ask for it for it to be a multi-country release, following the list you provided of various countries were there are festivities on Dec 5.
This would be very simple, and only requires the issued stamp to not have the usual 2 letter country code. We have seen this exact thing happen recently with St Martin's Day, which was release in many European countries, plus Canada and US.
Good luck and thank you! 🙂👍🍀
Lufox
Yann2: Thank you for your support and kind words! I came here to see if there has been any change and ended up being pleasantly surprised that the Slowly team really decided to merge so I'm very happy with the result of my proposal 💕
I agree that multi-country release is the best scenario in this moment. I'm sure the stamp will be awesome.
Have a great day!
Yann2
Nicely done proposal, Amigo97, and it's happening!! I even snatched a preview...
Shiro from Slowly
Yann2: At first we only designed this stamp for the Netherlands, so we asked our illustrator to prepare this "boot with carrots" stamp. After reviewing we decided to cover more European countries, so we had to drop this idea and prepared something else.
Shiro from Slowly
in progress
Lufox
Shiro from Slowly: Hi, could you consider merging? About 8 countries have similar Saint Nicholas Day - https://feedback.slowly.app/stamp-requests/p/saint-nicholas-day
Thank you!
Amigo97
Lufox: Really nice proposal and also to read that they celebrate Sinterklaas in your country as well! It would be nice if this one would be released in multiple countires that celebrate it. :D Let's hope for it.
Lufox
Shiro from Slowly: Thank you for the merge!
Lufox
Amigo97: Thank you for your compliment 💕 The Sinterklaas in your proposal's picture is majestic, I mean the beard itself is sublime! It was interesting to learn the slight differences between our versions of S. Nicholas.
I hope our joint proposals will be awarded with a very cute multiple-country release stamp.
Btw have you created the stamp you've included? It's very pretty.
Have a great day!
Miranda from Slowly
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Miranda from Slowly
Merged in a post:
[Netherlands] Sinterklaas ( Dec 5 )
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Sinterklaas lives in Spain throughout the year and comes to the Netherlands in November on his boat (the 'pakjesboot') together with his horse and his helpers, the (black) Petes. This last part is what the holiday is a bit controversial for, since some claim the black Petes are racist, but generally it is still considered an important holiday here and the controversy could be avoided completely by dedicating the stamp to Sinterklaas only (just his face with his 'mijter', the red 'hat' he is wearing, and potentially his golden 'staf').
Another important characteristic of the holiday is that children get to put their shoe (=schoen zetten) at night (also an amazing idea to portray the holiday! This picture seems pretty representative: https://www.volmaakt-onvolmaakt.nl/het-nut-van-de-schoencadeautjes/)
They usually put something for Sinterklaas' horse in there, like a carrot or hay, or something for Sinterklaas himself, like a letter or drawing, and sing a song to Sinterklaas in the evening. At night, Sinterklaas (or his Petes) will come to all houses to give the nice children some fruit/treats/a small present (examples of treats are pepernoten and chocoladeletters)
On the 5th of December (main date of the holiday), Sinterklaas will celebrate his birthday by giving presents to all children that have been nice throughout the year (similarly to how Santa Claus gives presents on Christmas Day -- Santa Claus was inspired by Sinterklaas :) ) and legend says that children that have been nasty will go in the 'zak van sinterklaas' with him to Spain.