December 5 is Sinter Klaas holiday in The Netherlands. The Sint arrives in The Hague on a fishing boat, supposedly from Spain. He is accompanied by a group of Zwarte Piets, who throw a sort of candy to the people. All the children sing songs to welcome the Sint, and that evening, the families gather to hand out gifts. The special aspect of Sint day is that the gift is attached to a poem and is hidden inside a packaging that disguises what it is AND together, the poem and the package, are supposed to make a sort of funny, sarcastic comment on the person getting the gift. In the schools, each child is brought with the class to meet Sint, who reads from a large book in which the teachers have described the children. In some cases, the Sint says that "you have not worked hard on your spelling, have you?" Of course, the little children are amazed at his knowledge. On the street outside our apartment, (and on many streets in the whole country) The Sint and the Piets parade with music and make a lot of fun with the shoppers. All the families arrive and greet Sint, who has ridden up on a white horse. Lots of laughing, lots of singing and just plain fun. We used to have fun with the friends and our kids in a big Sint party where poems and gifts were exchanged. You would pick a person's name out of a hat and buy them a present and write the poem. It was great when one of the children got an adult's name and wrote a poem that could be quite funny(and true).
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