miscellaneous

In Holland we celebrate two different but similar occasions. Sinterklaas on Dec 5th, and Christmas, Dec 25th.

As a child i was a firm believer in Sinterklaas. The american Santa Claus is loosely based upon him, and kinda Disneyfied. Whereas Sinterklaas was an actual bishop. So to me, Sinterklaas was real and Santa Claus was not. Sinterklaas turned out to be fake too, though. I still haven't fully forgiven my parents for that.

Firstly, how to tell one from the other;

Santa Claus
- tubby fatso
- says Ho Ho Ho a lot
- has a bell
- rides a reindeer sleigh, through the sky
- lives on the north pole
- wears red and furry outfit
- delivers presents through the chimney in stockings
- has lots of dwarves working for him
- endorsed by coca cola

Sinterklaas
- christian bishop
- wears a red alb and a mitre
- holds a crosier
- rides a white grey horse (does not fly)
- lives in Spain, comes to Holland by boat
- delivers presents through the chimney in shoes
- has lots of black servants working for him

These servants are all referred to as 'Black Pete'. They're white man and women in blackface makeup. For some reason, this isn't considered racist by most Dutch. Most non-Dutch disagree.

All Black Petes work for Sinterklaas, and in old times they were the boogymen; if you had been a bad child, he'd birch you! And take you to Spain! Good children received toys and candy from Sinterklaas. Nowadays Black Pete is more like a clown, entertaining children with juggling and stuff. But they still work for Sinterklaas, and deliver all the presents. All Sinterklaas does is note things in his big book.

If you want presents, you have to leave your shoe (just one, two would be greedy!) at the fireplace. Modern houses don't have fireplaces anymore, but that's a minor detail. You can additionally suck up to Sinterklaas by being extra nice to his faithful horse; leave a big carrot and some water next to the shoes (Black Pete can go fuck himself, he gets nothing). And in the morning there'll be presents!

Besides toys, Sinterklaas also brings candy. Everyone gets a big chocolade letter; the first letter of your name. (Williams and Michaels are luckier than Isaacs and Irenes). The meaning of this is unclear to me.

Another type of candy is 'pepper nuts' (im not making this up), which Black Pete throws around when children are about.

When children grow older, and no longer believe Sinterklaas is real, families still celebrate Dec 5th by giving each other presents, 'secret santa' style. Presents are wrapped in creative ways (best one i did was a diaper with fake poo), and besides the present, you have to write an anonymous poem for the receiver (all poems are signed "Sinterklaas"). In these poems you can poke fun at the family member, for bad habits or whatever, and depending on the skills of the writer, they're either very funny or very bad.

Then christmas comes along, and that's just another reason for a family dinner and some presents.

I'd like to hear customs of other countries :) I hear Austria has Krampus, a demon from hell, looking for bad children. How awesome is that? Black Pete can go suck it :)

We have Boxing day on the 26th December.

Traditionally this is the day when the Christmas boxes from the churches were opened up & shared with the poor.

Also the lords of the manors would dish out their Christmas feast left overs to the workers of their estates.

Now it's the first day of the new years sales :P

Still it's a free day off \o/

tl;dr

you'll be taken to spain with the other bad children for that easy

shush! get busy and dump on me ;)

easy's holiday tradition, christmas trolling, how this is different from easter, new years, quanza, or everyday trolling is yet to be determined.

love you DNM

Well, in Denmark Santa lives in the northen Greenland and it's elfs that works for him. A side from that, we don't have any traditions for the 25th like most others (we open our presents on the 24th).

We do celebrate Advent by giving smaller presents or being social with the family and some have tradition for calendar presents (24 small daily presents leading up to the Christmas eve).

On the 23rd we eat Rice pudding with cinnamon-suggar and butter, and the leftover is used for Ris a la mandé with Cherry sauce on the 24th.

My Christmas tradition is working at 3 times normal pay and I love it.

^^ this

Pretty much everything that Mithrandon said. Not the rice pudding tho.

HOLY FUCK TL;DR

i get drunk

on another note, we got Sveti Nikola which is kinda similar to your sinterklaas or the fuck you named it, and an opposite for him which is Krampus, he takes care of bad kids.

no santa claus tho

oh yea .. forgot about the important part .. we don't have a so called opposite to Santa ... he just gives charcoal to the bad kids instead of toys

We have Simbang Gabi, which is, from December 16 up until the 24th, a daily mass really early in the morning (4am) which is a good excuse to drink all night so you can all stagger shitfaced into church at 4am. Churches and the surrounding area are always swimming with people around that time, have very fond memories of "Simbang Gabi fun" as a teenager. It's a Catholic custom really, but I'm not Catholic and I still participate, though it's mostly the waiting for the mass that's fun.

Oh and bonus: Old folks say that if you complete all 9 days, you get a free wish. Never completed them though, so I cannot attest to the veracity of this claim.

Also, Noche Buena, (Christmas feast that begins at midnight when the clock strikes twelve entering the 25th), with the standard ham and queso de bola, edam cheese balls that for some reason have become a standard part of a traditional Filipino Christmas.

edam O.o

How odd ^^

we got Sveti Nikola which is kinda similar to your sinterklaas or the fuck you named it

Sinterklaas originates from Sint Nicolaas. Both names are used actually.

And lol @ edam cheese balls. Happy to know dutch cheese has become part of christmas in the Philippines :)
(btw, why are people from the Philippines called Filipinos? Confuses the hell out of me)

How is it odd? :/ It's wrapped in red wax, maybe that's how people started associating it with Christmas. Or it could be linked to Chinese traditions, considering Christmas' proximity to New Years. (Chinese custom = have a lot of round things around at New Year's Eve, because round = money)

Pic for you, it's sliced queso de bola, and a bottle of the best beer in the universe.

(btw, why are people from the Philippines called Filipinos? Confuses the hell out of me)

It's just as convoluted as any other language. Anyway:

In English:

When referring to people: Filipino/Filipina, not Philippino.

When referring to the country: Philippines, not Filippines.

Affiliated things: Philippine (e.g. Philippine flag)

In Tagalog:

When referring to people: Pilipino/Pilipina, not Filipino/Filipina, although in recent years use of these terms have become widespread as the lines between languages begins to blur.

When referring to country: Pilipinas, not Filipinas or Philippinas.

San Miguel?? Mkaay...