Never heard of it in my life. (raised in the South by protestants who fortunately were unable to indoctrinate me into their evil path). I do celebrate “christmas”, though–I look upon it as a fabulous celebration of capitalism and greed–love it!
Yes – and I teach a German class, so every year we make little paper shoes to leave out. I try to sneak into school and fill them up with chocolate and treats. And switches. These are high school kids, and they are so excited with the little bits of goodies that it cracks me up.
Dutch on one side of the family and German on the other, but apparently too far removed to remember this holiday. I first heard about it some time in high school.
orthodox, st. nick’s day is on dec. 19th for us.
decorated on beethoven’s birthday (dec. 16) then stockings would be filled and ready to be emptied on dec. 19th. there would always be an apple, orange, and nuts in the toe section.
now the cats and i have treats and stockings on the 19th.
English, never heard of it before, sounds great !
Wasn’t he supposed to be Turkish ?
Or is that another bloke of the same name ?
I work in a Catholic School and we celebrate there. On the morning of the 6th all the students leave a shoe in the corridor, outside the classrooms. St Nicholas comes along (disguised as volunteers from the Parents Organisation!) and leaves sweets in every shoe. The kids absolutely love it!
I’ve always bee worried about the Socks gang turning up, and being total bastards.
As a Dutchman, this is off course celebrated. To give you an idea of how big this is, our daily traffic jams started a few hours earlier because of parents going home early and many public buildings and schools closed early.
The real St. Nick was from Turkey yes, but our gift bringing bishop is from Madrid and arrives by steamboat (don’t ask how, he just does).
I was recently reading about an event called the Klausjagen, held after dark in a town in Switzerland on St. Nick’s Eve. It involves a parade of men cracking loud whips, followed by people wearing 6 ft. tall paper miters ( pope hats) lit from within by candles, St. Nick himself accompanied by four dark robed and hooded attendants, a band, a cowbell band, and a horn band…sounds like quite a hoot! Pre-Christian in origin, but the church stuck St. Nicholas in there to make it less pagan, more Christian.
Whose St. Nick celebrations include Schvartze Piet (sp?), the “Six to eight black men” &/or Krampus the Demon?
Maybe David Sedaris? He did, after all, write a story about the mysterious “Six To Eight Black Men” who accompany Sinterklaas…