Carol of the Day: Dec 6th · 11:55pm Dec 6th, 2019
Today's song a slight deviation. In honor of St. Nicholas day, we're going to look at "Zie Ginds Komt de Stoomboot", a Dutch song children sing as they welcome the arrival of Sinterklaas.
Translated as "Look, Here Comes the Steamboat", children sing about how Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) is travelling from Spain his his horse and the Black Peter(s) to deliver presents to them.
English translation of the first verse:
Look, here comes the steamboat
from far a-way lands.
It brings us St. Nich’las,
he’s waving his hands.
His horse is a-prancing
on deck, up and down,
The banners are waving
in village and town.
With so many different customs and traditions going on around this time, I thought I would share one in my house. My family is partially Dutch and so Sinterklaas was a huge portion of our Christmas traditions. In fact, the character of Santa Claus was largely unknown to me. While other kids were going to the mall to see Santa, we'd go to the local Netherlands cultural club. On Christmas eve, we'd stuff our wooden shoes with speculoos (a spice cookie) for Sinterklaas and carrots for his horse.
Of course, this is only one custom from one country. Check this link out if your interested in other St. Nicholas Day customs.
So, now I've got a question for you. Do you do anything special for St. Nicholas Day? Do you celebrate any other seasonal characters?
I'm curious to know!
Jump to other days:
December 1st - Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
December 2nd - Joy to the World
December 3rd - Mele Kalikimaka
December 4th - Gospel Hallelujah!
December 5th - Good King Wenceslas
December 7th - I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
December 8th - Huron Carol
December 9th - The Marvelous Toy
December 10th - What Child is This?
December 11th - Christmas 1915
December 12th - Let's Have a Christmas Celebration
December 13th - No Time to Diet
December 14th - Twelve Days of Christmas
December 15th - Adeste Fidelis
December 16th - Circle of Steel
December 17th - I Saw Three Ships
December 18th - Green the Whole Year Round
December 19th - The Holly and the Ivy
December 20th - Google Translate Sings Christmas Carols
December 21st - Vivaldi's Winter
December 22nd - Wizards of Winter
December 23rd - Here We Come A-Caroling
December 24th - Christ is Born
December 25th - Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
