LL-L "Holidays" 2007.12.05 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  05 December 2007 - Volume 01
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Holidays

Dear Lowlanders,

To those of you that celebrate it, happy St. Nicholas Day tomorrow, December
6!

This is the major holiday of the Christmas season for most of our friends in
the areas under Dutch influence.

For those east of them, where Lowlands and German traditions have merged, it
is a minor holiday, mostly for children.

When I was a child (untold centuries ago), we would have to brush our shoes
particularly well and in the evening before, just before going to bed, we
would place them (originally one, in more affluent times two) on a window
sill, say a little verse to Santa Claus and in the morning find treats and
small toys in our shoes.

This Santa Claus (Low Saxon: *Nyklaas*, German *Nikolaus*) was not the same
as Father Christmas (LS: *Wynachtsman*, G. *Weihnachtsmann*). He was a
precursor, so to speak. It was all a bit confusing really, what with these
two guys and rough old Knecht Ruprecht as well in the merging of traditions
(i.e., Lowlands culture with a German superstrate). In some families, even
in non-Catholic ones, the southern tradition of the Christ Child (*
Christkind*) was added to the mix as well, not a little baby boy (as you
would expect) but a female angel ... Go figure! And then there were the
"Polish" kids (i.e., children whose ancestors had immigrated from Poland) in
our neighborhood as well. They had their own Christmas traditions, but some
had partly adapted to ours, and their were those that were Protestants with
traditions closer to ours (possibly of Kashubian and Slovincian background
that were expelled from Poland as "German s" at the end of World War II).

But all of us had St. Nicholas in common, all on December 6: Low Saxon *(Sankt)
Nyklaas*, German *(Sankt) **Nikolaus*, Polish *Święty Mikołaj (z Miry)*.

Enjoy!

Reinhard/Ron
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