h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sint Nicholais Day, around the world


First I'll describe the feast in The Netherlands;
See also http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=92

On a Sunday in the middle of November, St. Nicholas, known as in the Netherlands, arrives in Amsterdam. Around 11:30 am the steamboat from Spain docks by the Central Train Station across from . Deafening salutes and ringing church bells fill the air, as the mayor welcomes the good before he mounts his white (or gray) horse.

The fun begins at noon with a big parade: Sinterklaas accompanied by many , brass bands, beautiful floats, officials in cars, and colorful groups of jesters, cycling clowns, and more. Thousands of pounds of sweets and have been put in burlap sacks for the acrobatic to throw to the crowds lining the streets.

The parade winds along the Damrak to the Rembrandtplein coming to an end at the Leidesplein. Here, around 2:15 pm, from the balcony of the city theatre, the Stadsschouwburg, Sinterklaas addresses crowds of children and their parents.


Thus begins "Sinterklaas Season" when Sinterklaas and his helpers travel around the country, visiting hospitals, schools, shops, restaurants, and even homes during the three weeks before the main Sinterklaas celebration. and his Piets seem to be everywhere at once, asking about children's behavior and listening through chimneys.

The children leave their shoes out with carrots and hay for the horse.
In exchange the Piets put candy or a small gift in the shoes to be found in the morning.

Sinterklass Official National Entry—with Photos

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=483 National website

about Sinterklaas.

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=105 Arrival in Amsterdam

See another few websites, if you’d like to see it for yourself.

http://www.omroep.nl/nps/sinterklaasjournaal/

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=92


And now, St. Nicholas around the world.

In many places St. Nicholas is the main gift giver. His feast day, St. Nicholas Day, is December 6, which falls early in the Advent season. Some places he arrives in the middle of November and moves about the countryside, visiting schools and homes to find out if children have been good.

Other places he comes in the night and finds carrots and hay for his horse or donkey along with children's wish lists. Small treats are left in shoes or stockings so the children will know he has come.

Where St. Nicholas is prominent, his day, not Christmas, is the primary gift giving day. Parties may be held on the eve, December 5th, and shoes or stockings left for St. Nicholas to fill during the night. Children will find treats of small gifts, fruit or nuts, and special Nicholas candies and cookies. St. Nicholas gifts are meant to be shared, not hoarded for oneself.

See also, to discover the difference between all the countries in the world.

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=76

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=23



Greetings from Amsterdam, 2007

Mankind is being fascinated by snooker, so for a change I zapped this evening to One and in a moment of self-destruction I kept my eyes in the direction of the screen.


Colours; as sweet as one can create.


Images, that are sticky by leftover sugar and dishwater.


Smiles; as big as one can fabricate


Music; sweet as Bing Crosby could sing, or worse.


After five seconds I admitted myself to confirm that I was indeed listening to a song about white things, and things like dreams and an organized happening in December, yes, christmas. Yes, it must be about christmas.

What is Christmas?

Well, I don't think I can be of any help, because by nature I always look the other way, when I see green and red and lights on top of trees and automobiles, while suddenly the whole world is in search for the lonely and poor to force them to smile as big as the female cook does in her BBC program.


It's also about a man, dressed like a red gnome, who comes all the way from the North with his reindeer and sits on something like a sledge and he drinks lots of Cola, but at Christmas he wants to sell it, as if it was the last water on the globe.

He seems to be friendly, but that's the outside.
He?

He's a very friendly dictator, because from now one in December, there are only three colours permitted in the world; white, green and red.

White is meant to stimulate our fantasies and green to go for the dollar buck as never before and the colour red is for the law of the jungle at the globe, because morals are only respected inside one's own country.

So from now on, there are only smiling peoples and those who cannot fake any longer are sent into holidays abroad to tropical Islands with their own coke ...


Yes, from now on, there is no moonlight, but only electric light, everywhere and nowhere, in the free world as in prisons, in Florida as in Moscow.

Why doesn't she stop smiling!?

Who?

The woman in that cooking program!

Well, the woman I was looking at, has a name which the BBC assumes all of mankind already knows for many years.

It's something like Nygilla Leawson? . No, it's Nigella Lawson.

Here, it's in the paper.

I thought that I was looking at old fashioned irony of the seventees, or at a beginning of a vicious thriller, like a sweet and shiny housewife who suddenly gets a visit by a serial killer, dressed like an escort man with a mysterious look in his eyes.


So I have been looking at a famous cooking program, proudly announced :

Quote;

Already an international star, in 2006 Nigella collaborated with the Food Network in the USA and launched the television series Nigella Feasts. Her 2006 BBC Christmas special showed her at her inspiring best. Her new series, Nigella Express, is currently airing on primetime BBC Two.Nigella was voted author of the year at the 2001 British Book Awards. Her books have sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide.

End Quote.

Yes, dear friend, I do surrender, I give in, but my very last words will be; she smiles like a machinegun. Extremely inspiring I must say, because I have never,ever written about a food program that long.

Who the hell invented Christmas !



Amsterdam, Alfredo, December 2007