Sinterklaas

It's Friday, September the 18th, and this is the Dutch News Podcast, your weekly chance to catch up with what's been going on here in the Netherlands.

I'm Gordon Darroch, Dutch News Contributing Editor and Tickle Terminator, and with me today is Paul Peters, civil engineer and not the next Sinterklaas.

Yes, because this week there was a lot of Sinterklaas news, St. Nicholas news.

Well, the sweets are in the shops, aren't they?

Yeah, that's right.

The 1st of September, the first paper notes are always in the shop.

And there's always some sort of upheaval about that because people think that all the sweets that are associated with Sinterklaas, which happens on December 5th, of course, should not be in the shops before September.

before Sinterklaas has arrived in the Netherlands.

holiday.

The birthday of Sinterklaas.

In this series, we've been over a lot of the cultural differences and similarities between Canada and the Netherlands.

But this was one I wasn't expecting.

That's what it is.

Not Santa Claus.

We know Sinterklaas.

And we also have Santa Claus.

November.

And the festive season kicks off Dutch style, which is to say, Sinterklaas arrives by steamboat.

From Spain, with helpers, on live TV, and if you are new here, no, I will not be taking any questions, and yes, your child already knows all the songs.

So the Inntocht or the arrival, it's on a Saturday in mid-November.

That one deserves its own episode.

I have to figure out how to help parents figure that one out.

We're kind of still doing, yes, Sinterklaas is happening.

Yes, Santa's happening.

know.

Oh, also, you want to know what's really funny in a, like, dark way? The Dutch, the Dutch Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, who I realize we didn't talk about Santa at all, but the Dutch Sinterklaas, who also, by the way, not derived from any pagan tradition.

Sinterklaas has a sidekick called Schwarzpeter, which means Black Peter.

Yeah, it's true.

Yeah, that is what Schwartz means in German.