SINTERKLAAS
The Dutch annual celebration of Sinterklaas has a long history. In the first place there was the tradition to put a shoe at the church, and the presents which were given in each shoe were gifts for the poor people. The first documents which were found about the Sinterklaas feast, descend from 1427, where rich people in the city Utrecht would give money and presents on the fifth of november, and these were divided among the poor people on the sixth of november, the day Sint Nicolaas died.
Sinterklaas (or Sint Nicolaas) his original name is Nicholas of Myra. He was born in Patara in Lycia that today is in Turkey, but in the year 280 it was part of the former Byzantine Empire. Later he would become the Bishop of Myra, the capital of Lycia. Sinterklaas died on 6 December 342.
The modern version of Sinterklaas, how it is celebrated nowadays, finds its traditions from a book written by the Dutch writer Jan Schenkman in 1850, called "Sint Nicolaas en zijn knecht". He was also the one that described Sinterklaas as a child-friend who gave children candy and gifts when they had been good children. Another things that were made up bij Jan Schenkman, are the arrival of Sinterklaas by a boat, and the black-skinned servants.
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