December 11 - On this day, a letter about Saint Nicholas is published, concerning his yearly visit to the city of Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands:
"During a residence in the above town, some twenty years agone, in the brief days of happy boyhood, (that green spot in our existence,) it was my fortune to be present at one of these annual visitations. Imagine a group of happy youngsters sporting around the domestic hearth, in all the buoyancy of riotous health and spirits, brim-full of joyful expectation, but yet in an occasional pause, casting frequent glances towards the door, with a comical expression of impatience, mixed up with something like dread of the impending event. At last a loud knock is heard, in an instant the games are suspended, and the door slowly unfolding, reveals to sight the venerated saint himself, arrayed in his pontificals, with pastoral staff and jewelled mitre."
Sinterklaas, after praising the family's successes, then gave "his parting benediction, together with the promise (never known to fail,) of more substantial benefits, to be realized on the next auspicious morning."
"Before retiring to rest, each member of the family deposits a shoe on a table in a particular room, which is carefully locked, and the next morning is opened in the presence of the assembled household; when lo! by the mysterious agency (doubtless) of the munificent saint, the board is found covered with bons bons, toys and trinkets.
The writer, identified only as H.H., hopes that others appreciate the "relics of ancient observances, belonging to a more primitive state of manners," and offers the sentiment that "modern refinements, if they tend to render us wiser, hardly make us happier!"
H.H. could never have guessed that Sinterklaas' annual arrival to the Netherlands would be telecast and archived for all to see, but he might have relished the enduring joy in the spectacle. [EDBv1]
Image from Kenneth Verburg's Flickr page
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