Village Squire, 1977-12, Page 17i
no cars. We walked to church with our parents, who were invited
to be in the audience.
One of the Sunday school teachers told "The" Christmas story
and another one told "A" Christmas story. Sometimes we
portrayed the story of Bethlehem as a play. At that time this was
considered pretty daring in our very conservative Calvinistic
church. For the same reason was the presence of a tree in the
church. and in many a home, a very controversial issue. After all,
the X-mas tree is a heathen symbol.
From the foregoing one can readily see that in Holland the
Christmas celebration was strictly a religious festival. There
Frere differences between the Roman Catholics and the
Protestants, but these were minor. We. as protestants would
never see a graven image, while our Catholic friends celebrated
around the Nativity scene. When we went into the Catholic
church vie found the atmosphere in there much more solemn.
compared with the white -washed austerity of our place of
worship. The giving of gifts was only a very minor detail and was
supposed only to symbolize the Christmas -gift given to us in the
person of the Christ child.
All this didn't mean that Dutch children don't get a festival
comparable with Christmas in the English speaking world. No.
but that was done on a completely separate occasion. the
Sinterklaas festival.
The legend has it that bishop Nicolas of the Bishopric of Myra
in Asia Minor. did secretly all kinds of good deeds. When it was
cold, he sneaked out at night from his palace and distributed
firewood and food to the needy. He was found out as the
dogooder only after his death. To commemorate this saintly man.
whose name day is on the sixth of December, parents give their
children gifts on the eve of this day. Soon Saint Nicholas day
became Sinterklaas day. For some unknown reason. the children
are told that the Good Holy Man resides now in Spain. from
whence he comes forth on the eve of his name day to distribute
gifts to the children. In Spain he acquired a blackanloor servant
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VILLAGE SQUIRE/DECEMBER 1977, 15.