December 07, 2006

St Nicholas' feast day was yesterday. Hope you had a good one.

In England, recent years have seen the reappearance of the St Nicholas Day Boy Bishop (at Salisbury and Wymondham, for example.) - a pre-reformation tradition abolished by Henry VIII and again by Elizabeth I for being far too silly. The day is marked in many European countries.In Bulgaria, people eat Ribnik in the Plovdiv style: in the Netherlands, speculaas. Sinterklaas actually arrives in the Netherlands by boat from Spain several weeks before his big day, except in the town of Deventer,where his disreputable behaviour has led to a local law prohibitng his arrival before 5 December.

posted by Plegmund 18 years ago
  • Pleased to say that Sinterklaas left me a chocoladeletter in my lunch yesterday. But, alas, milk chocolate, and not the good stuff, so he must have found out about some things.
  • A religious tradition abolished for being too silly? The mind boggles!
  • Well, there are plenty of people in Holland who have a problem with the Moorish helper, Zwarte Piet. Since there weren't too many Moors around, Piet has traditionally been played by a young woman in blackface. So, there are some legitimate questions of if the blackface tradition is something young children should be exposed to, or indeed, having black people in subservient roles in the first place. The response has been (so far) that it's simply tradition, and that minorities are reading far too much into it. There was a bit on the ceeb about it yesterday.
  • The Boy Bishop thing is interesting. There seem to have been a whole host of mediaeval festivals where traditional hierarchies were reversed.
  • "The response has been (so far) that it's simply tradition, and that minorities are reading far too much into it." MonkeyFiltre, Curious George: What's the deal with slavery? 7 December, 1859
  • That's the thing, Ralph. For all their praise for being a haven of tolerance, the Dutch can be astonishingly racist.
  • There seem to have been a whole host of mediaeval festivals where traditional hierarchies were reversed. That makes a lot of sense. In a feudal society where social roles were so clearly defined, it would have been good for everyone psychologically to break out of them a few times a year.
  • Ribnik in the Plovdiv style Speculaas, Sinterklaas, Ribnik in the Plovdiv style Speculaas, Jim. Chocoladeletter lunch, Zwarte Piet, Zwarte Piet, Chocoladeletter lunch Zwarte Piet, Jim. Star trekkin' across the Universe On the starship Enterprise under Captain Kirk Star trekkin' across the Universe Always goin' forward cause we can't find reverse
  • traditional hierarchies were reversed ... That makes a lot of sense. Traciclaus, please give me the furry fat-suit you run this place in and a mince pie for Chydolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
  • While working in Switzerland, one morning in the office the coffee table was laden with fruit, nuts and chocolate. All the staff acted genuinely surprised and pleased, "Er war hier!", which was cute. Noone mentioned that the boss had arrived early in the office that day...
  • Quid, I love you. Don't ever leave us again.
  • Chydolf???
  • .. had a very shiny nose! And if you ever saw it, He'd start taking off your clothes / and then he'd lay you down by the FI-YAH / and he'd make love to you wo-man / satiate your burnin' DE-ZI-YAH.
  • St. Nicholas, St. Nicholas He really is the ficklest Be I nice, or be I naughty I never get a gift he bought me St. Nicholas, St. Nicholas He likes to tease and tickle us If he's such a jolly elf, Why don;t I get gifts, myself?
  • /tries to smoke a rubber cigar
  • For all their praise for being a haven of tolerance, the Dutch can be astonishingly racist. Restaurant decor from a restaurant I visited in the Netherlands last year.
  • BFFT BFFT CHIG BFFT BFFT CHIG Underpants Monster done made a RHYME With a "dopin" shoutout to father christmas TIME Now I gotta ask "y'all" "wassup" with "DAT" Mister father christmas he deserves a RAP EVERYBODY BREAKDANCE! down->spin->jump->do some of that robot shit HO-HO-HO is what I want for triple-X Mas. Now my main elf gonna hit the DECKS YO KICK "IT" *Wickky wickky wiggle wickky wickky wooop wicky woo wicky woo* "Word up", my boybitches. This "rap"-sody and many others like it are available on my Christmas Album, A quiddy little bitchmas which you may purchase in all fine record stores.
  • *cries*
  • David Sedaris wrote a fun little piece about differing Christmas traditions.
  • *Ghost of Christmas Specials Past arises, looks for quid, makes crack about Loni Anderson*
  • I always liked Sedaris' story about Dinah, the Christmas Whore, but I'm reluctant to google it at work.
  • Ha, I got a big survival box from Sinterklaas this year, and it contained, amongst many other things a dark chocolate letter. Beat that Captain! (And yeah, the Dutch are racist, one reason I left.)
  • GDVR.
  • Burgerij, mannen van het jaar nul Vette burgerkliek Vette vieze varkens Burgerij tamme zwijnenspul Al die burger is is een ouwe
  • The always reliable BabelFish lets us discover the magic of TUM's verse: Burgerij, men of the year zero fat citizen coterie fat lively varkens burgerij tame zwijnenspul all that citizen is a ouwe is. Okay...
  • Geef nix hoor.
  • Babelfish: "Give nix hear". Uh-oh - Capt's got lice!
  • Geef nix hoor. An insult directed at someone who is promoting the free Dutch operating system Geefnix in exchange for money. AMIRITE?@?!
  • *scorns chocoladeletter, chows down on lovely Mintnopjes* hi quiddy!
  • Local wag brings two Christmas icons together. (NSF elves or Virginia)
  • Hail, Mothninjrial - elf-Queen of Florencia! Please give our dwarvish regards to Elrond and Santa.
  • That's gonna up the kettle thefts!
  • Just finished my yearly bell-ringing stint. Nobody mugged me. But that might be because it's about 7,000 degrees below zero today. /humbug
  • It's only 6,459 below zero up here today! /goes moonbathing
  • Garçon! Nice hot cuppa tea for Lara! And bung some brandy in it! Too bad it's mostly coins. With paper money, you could have built a nice little fire in the red kettle.
  • Actually, we got a lot of bills. People musta felt sorry for us.
  • Plus I 'spose it doesn't hurt that we were parked outside of a bank, grabbing people as they came out with their fresh payday money.
  • That's legal? *paints cooking pot red, practices carols*
  • St Nicholas's Day is, for no good cultural reason, a holiday tradition in my family, and has been since I was about 7 years old. This year, which is probably the last, my mom neglected to leave anything in my shoes and showed up late in the day with a DVD. *sigh*
  • The tooth fairy often left my quarter on the back of the toilet at 11:00 the next day.
  • relevant self-link from last December: Christmas Rapping