Happy Hallowe’en to everyone at home! Although the Dutch are full of enthusiasm about a lot of things and love to celebrate, this is not one of those days. Instead we see the shops full of items in preparation for Sinterklaas Day, which comes on December 5th. Street vendors are out with Olebollen, too ! When I was young, our family used to have these only at New Years, but they are available a plenty now. It's a yeast donut, not very sweet, with raisins, apples pieces or cranberries. After they are deep fried, they are rolled in powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar. Best to eat them warm.
Sinterklaas Day is to commemorate the life of St. Nicholas. Visitors might think it’s the same as the role of Santa Claus in Canada and the USA . . . but not so. In many European countries, the celebration of St. Nicholas is separate from the Christmas holidays, and occurs during the two weeks prior to December 6th. Sometimes St. Nicholas Day is the main holiday for gift giving rather than Christmas.
In the Netherlands, legend has it that Sinterklaas (Dutch name for St. Nicholas) arrives by way of steamboat from Spain two weeks before his traditional birthday, December 6th, along with his helper, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), who will help disperse the gifts and candy to all the good children. Sinterklaas, along with the zwarte piets, will go out at night and stride about the countryside wearing his red mantle, his mitre, and his golden crosier and sporting a long, white beard. Referring to his book that lists all the good and bad children, Sinterklaas will deliver presents to all the good children, but watch out if you've been bad! The bad children may be taken back to Spain with him. Funny . . . they never really say what happens there. hmmm */? Belgium and Luxemburg have basically the same traditions surrounding St. Nicholas, but not to the extent of the Netherlands.
Immediately after Dec 6th the town and shops will be full of the traditional Christmas decorations and fare followed by a major celebration with massive fireworks displays for New Years. Again, they do love to celebrate!
Today, we went out once again for a beautiful long bike ride with Jen and Kylie, ending up in town for a coffee and for Jen to do some errands. After lunch we went by car to Het Keringhuis, where we learned all about flood risk management in the Province of Zuid-Holland and the impressive Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier.
It is the last part of the Delta Works and was completed in 1997. It was designed to make sure the very busy shipping in this area would not be hampered by the need for expensive and time consuming dike reinforcement. This storm surge barrier will only be closed in extremely bad weather, probably only once every ten years. It is an impressive piece of engineering to say the least. The free museum shows how it was built and how the Dutch handle being situated below sea-level. Most of the museum is semi-educational and focused on children or school tours but it's still interesting for adults. We found out, by looking up their postal code, that Jen and Al’s home is almost a metre below sea level! And, that if they stopped all the mills and other activities involved in the management of the levels of water in Holland, the country would be almost completely under water within three days. Amazing!
Sinterklaas Day is to commemorate the life of St. Nicholas. Visitors might think it’s the same as the role of Santa Claus in Canada and the USA . . . but not so. In many European countries, the celebration of St. Nicholas is separate from the Christmas holidays, and occurs during the two weeks prior to December 6th. Sometimes St. Nicholas Day is the main holiday for gift giving rather than Christmas.
In the Netherlands, legend has it that Sinterklaas (Dutch name for St. Nicholas) arrives by way of steamboat from Spain two weeks before his traditional birthday, December 6th, along with his helper, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), who will help disperse the gifts and candy to all the good children. Sinterklaas, along with the zwarte piets, will go out at night and stride about the countryside wearing his red mantle, his mitre, and his golden crosier and sporting a long, white beard. Referring to his book that lists all the good and bad children, Sinterklaas will deliver presents to all the good children, but watch out if you've been bad! The bad children may be taken back to Spain with him. Funny . . . they never really say what happens there. hmmm */? Belgium and Luxemburg have basically the same traditions surrounding St. Nicholas, but not to the extent of the Netherlands.
Immediately after Dec 6th the town and shops will be full of the traditional Christmas decorations and fare followed by a major celebration with massive fireworks displays for New Years. Again, they do love to celebrate!
Today, we went out once again for a beautiful long bike ride with Jen and Kylie, ending up in town for a coffee and for Jen to do some errands. After lunch we went by car to Het Keringhuis, where we learned all about flood risk management in the Province of Zuid-Holland and the impressive Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier.
It is the last part of the Delta Works and was completed in 1997. It was designed to make sure the very busy shipping in this area would not be hampered by the need for expensive and time consuming dike reinforcement. This storm surge barrier will only be closed in extremely bad weather, probably only once every ten years. It is an impressive piece of engineering to say the least. The free museum shows how it was built and how the Dutch handle being situated below sea-level. Most of the museum is semi-educational and focused on children or school tours but it's still interesting for adults. We found out, by looking up their postal code, that Jen and Al’s home is almost a metre below sea level! And, that if they stopped all the mills and other activities involved in the management of the levels of water in Holland, the country would be almost completely under water within three days. Amazing!
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