Sinter Klaas and Santa Claus
I refer to your article about two Balinese dancers performing for Santa Claus at the Intercontinental Mid Plaza on Dec. 6.
This is a big mistake. The saint who is honored and revered in the performance is not Santa Claus but Sinter Klaas. These are two different saints, two different persons from different eras and countries and religious histories.
Sinter Klaas (Saint Nicholas) is a holy man from Turkey, who was born in 1258 and lived there until the mid 1300s with his assistants Zwarte Pieten (the black Petes) and celebrates his birthday on Dec. 5.
The characters Sinter Klaas and Zwarte Pieten is the saint riding on his white horse with the Black Petes following behind him on the rooftops of houses in the middle of the night. Nowadays little children who still believe in Sinter Klaas put their shoes in front of the heater and put carrots and lettuce in their shoes for the horse and a poem for the saint and sing a Sinter Klaas song before they go to sleep.
To their great surprise and happiness the next morning they find a wrapped present in their shoe or boot. Nowadays, expensive Play Stations or computer games.
Especially in countries like Holland, Belgium and Switzerland this tradition is still kept alive in families, schools and in the media. For example in Holland it is a tradition that people dressed up as Sinter Klaas and Zwarte Pieten come from Spain to Holland by an old steamship and arrive every year, live on TV, at the Marine Harbor of Den Helder in the last week of November and stay for two weeks in Holland to make all children happy until they leave on Dec. 6 after Sinterklaas' birthday.
On Dec. 25 and Dec. 26 we celebrate Christmas in memory of the birth of Christ. That religious family day has been associated through the centuries with Santa Claus and his sleigh pulled by reindeer from the North Pole to make not only children but whole families happy with presents under the Christmas tree.
This second saint is a different saint and is mixed up a lot with the first saint. Their clothes are both red but look totally different if you put them side by side.
So don't forget ... Sinter Klaas on his white horse with Zwarte Pieten is on Dec. 5 Santa Claus on his sleigh pulled by reindeer is on Dec. 25 and Dec. 26.
JEROEN E. LEZER
Jakarta