Thursday, November 10, 2005

Culture: sinterklaas

The sinterklaasjournaal has started!! I'm a big fan of sinterklaas so don't be surprised to find only sinterklaas pictures on my blog till December 5. He will arrive Saturday in the Netherlands in Sneek. In the newspaper (Volkskrant) there was an article by Peter Giesen on traditions and how they change. For instance, mother's day was introduced in 1925 in the Netherlands, and is now fully incorporated in Dutch culture (that is: children in school are preparing some presents and songs for mother's day). He states that the number of such traditions seem to augment (Halloween starts to slowly enter the Netherlands too though it gets twisted and celebrated in different ways). With globalisation and looser social groupings, people cling more to these kind of traditions. Well, I cling only to Sinterklaas.

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