Sinterklaas brought presents to Catholic and Protestant children,
despite eighty years of war between the two sides
When researching Naming the Dead, I was surprised to discover that
the Dutch Republic continued to celebrate a Catholic saint after winning
independence from Spain. This seemed a strange anomaly, given religious
differences between them fuelled the Eighty Years War. Dutch children continued
to receive presents, supposedly from Sinterklaas, on his feast day of 6
December. I included a suitably snowy Sinterklaas scene in Naming the
Dead, and tried to learn more.
The original Saint Nicholas is believed to have been a Roman Empire-era
bishop from Myra, in modern day Turkey. Concerned that the daughters of a poor
merchant might be sold into slavery, Nicholas provided dowry money anonymously.
Subsequently, he was recognised by the Catholic church, becoming the patron
saint of sailors, merchants and children.
Superstitious sailors and merchants may have played a role in Saint
Nicholas’ subsequent popularity in the Protestant Dutch Republic. Also, the
official Dutch Reformed Church did not enforce conformity to the same extent as
in England. If independently-minded ‘middling’ families wished to pass on Sinterklaas
traditions, it would have been harder to stop them.
From 1624, Dutch settlers took the Sinterklaas tradition to their most famous colony New Amsterdam. After acquiring the colony in 1664, the English renamed it New York and changed Sinterklaas to Santa Claus. Without the Dutch Republic’s contribution, the present-giving saint would not have reached the English-speaking world.
Karen Haden’s historical crime novel Naming the Dead, set in early 1600s Amsterdam, is available from Sharpe Books on Kindle Unlimited and to buy at Karen Haden Books .