Here in Holland we still celebrate the Sinterklaas feast. I love it and I have always loved it. I have to admit Sinterklaas is more special when you are a kid or when you have kids. There is nothing so cool as to see the awe on youru childeren's faces when they stand before Sinterklaas.
I took the Sinterklaas feast for as it was and I never realised where the tradition came from. About ten years ago I read this book about the origin of this Sinterklaas feast and it is a way older and darker celebration then I could imagine. When Christianity arrived in the West of Europe the church took over the holy places. The pagan relion was one of worshipping the nature and trees where honoured. So on the holy places the christians would build chuches and they pagan god's were turned in to saints or demons. Poor Thor with his horns and goat legs became the devil while the supreme pagan god Wotan (or Odin) became the story of a Christian saint named Saint Nicolas.
Wotan was the god of life, death and war. The god that rode, on his horse Sleipnir, on the rooftops of the houses of the people too keep them save and to collect the souls of the death. Wotan was accompanied by his two wolfs and his two raven. The feathers worn by black Pete today symbolise Wotan's raven companions. On Sinterklaas it is said to the childeren if you have been good you will get candy but if you have been bad Sinterklaas will take you to Spain. Taking this back to Wotan it resembles the wild hunt. An army of souls under the leadership of Wotan himself who brought the souls of the wicked to hell.
Sinterklaas today a harmy folklore for childeren with a much deeper and darker past whick should be remembered and respected.
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