Popular theories about St Nicholas and his feast in the Netherlands (and
Belgium and certain parts of Germany) always abound. I'm never sure
whether they have any ground in sound historical research, but here it
goes...
I'm not sure if it was the Spanish who introduced the cult of St Nicholas
in the Netherlands. It must be older than that, judging by church
dedications. Nicholas was also the patron saint of the city of Amsterdam,
and this seems to have influenced the celebration of St Nicholas Eve in
the Netherlands.
I've always wondered how this saint held out in the Calvinistic
Netherlands; the cult in the way it is celebrated nowadays even seems to
have originated after the Reformation, not during the Middle Ages.
I have read somehwre that the figure of "zwarte piet" (black pete) could
be traced back to depictions of St Nicholas with a chained demon at his
feet. The demon's face was of course black. I'm not sure if this is
an iconographically correct theory, though. Zwarte Piet also has its
counterpart in Germany: Knecht Ruprecht; I'm not sure if this more
"demonic" helper of St Nicholas is black in Germany or not ...
Recent attempts to have "Petes" in different colours (orange, yellow,
blue) have proved not succesful with Dutch children, who, after all, are
not yet constrained by concerns about political correctness.
Finally (and this is popular comparative religion with no sound basis in
any reseach), I heard theories that St Nicholas (riding over the roofs on
a white horse etc.) is the Christian adaptation of the Germanic god Wodan,
or Odinn ...
As the days grow shorter and the season gets darker, perhaps someone
out there can shed any LIGHT on all these theories ??
-------------------------------------------------------
Frans van Liere
Department of History
College of Charleston 0 Bee Street
Charleston SC 29424 Charleston SC 29403
tel. (803) 953-1354 (803) 723-4051
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