After the Dutch immersion day there needed to be a follow-up event. Amy, teacher at the VSL, thought of a Sinterklaas feest.
So last Saturday I travelled to Box Hill to play Rijm Piet.
Sinterklaas or St Nicholas Day is celebrated on the 5th December. Saint Nicholas was known for his secret gift-giving. Coins could be found in the shoes of his faithful. Today Sinterklaas is known as the Saint of the children. In November he travels by boat from Spain to the Netherlands to surprise children with gifts. In stead of a stockings we use a shoe to receive small gifts in the period before the 5th of December. On Sinterklaas day children receive gifts and sweets like pepernoten. Pepernoten are tiny spekulaas cookies.
Elderly children often celebrate Sinterklaas by writing poems about some else (mentioning all good and bad behaviour of the last year) and crafting a surprise. The poem and surprise are often accompanied with a present.
Sinterklaas has helpers, which are called “Piet” or “pieten”. In the Netherlands there is a discussion going on about this for years now. The pieten used to have black faces; a lot of people find that offensive but on the other hand there are still some people who call it tradition.
I think I’m part of the offensive team because I was a Piet without the traditional black face. I was a rijmpiet. A rhyme piet. Funny enough a lot of the parents still called me zwarte piet (black piet).
We started making a Sinterklaas poem together.
After that we wrote an elfje together. An elfje (an eleven) is a form of poetry. It’s a abstract poem of eleven words. You start with one word. Then two. Then three. Then four. And you end with a conclusion of one word.
Now the children had to work. They wrote two elfjes. One started with Sinterklaas and one started with Piet. After that Rijmpiet asked who was brave enough to read their best poem out loud. Just a few kids were brave enough to read it out loud. But after receiving some pepernoten almost every one read their poems while the others patiently waited.
There was some time left so we crafted some pieten mutsen (hats). Even older children totally lost themselves while crafting and had loads of fun. We ended the day with a photo session and we said goodbye.
Happy faces and a happy piet!
