Jupiii today is St. Nicholas Eve, don’t forget to put the dish with your name on the table :)
When I was a child I believed in St. Nicholas. On this evening I was very anxious. My dad clanked one's chains and I think the devils and St. Nicholas are near :) When I grew older I always act devil part on performance for children in our village :)
Here is one interesting story about St. Nicholas.
The story about St. Nicholas began in Asia in 350. Saint Nicholas (Nikolaj, Miklavž) was at that time a bishop, who liked to help people and bring gifts for good children and for people with good hearts.
The story started to develop and every year more and more people began to believe that St. Nicholas really existed. At that time families were quite big, with lots of kids. They usually lived in poor conditions (especially after the war). A week before Saint Nicholas arrival all the children were very anxious. They had to behave and also to pray before going to bed, so Saint Nicholas would hear them and bring them many more things. The day before ( on 5th December) kids left their plates on the window sills inside the window. They went to bed early as they were convinced that otherwise he wouldn’t get any presents. Saint Nicholas was bringing presents only during the night. He came inside the house through the chimney. In the morning, when kids woke up, they found apples, nuts, sometimes there were also candies, cookies and oranges or some coins on their plates. But there was always a stick too, which was blessed and it should not be broken before the next Saint Nicholas arrival.
Kids never saw Saint Nicholas, but they knew his image from the photos of a bishop. In the past St. Nicholas walked around alone. Today he is usually followed by little angels or devils.
2 comments:
I liked your story about St. Nicholas. I find it a nice tradition and as a German teacher in Portugal I told my students to do some research work about Christmas topics and on of them was about St. Nicholas. We don't have that tradition in Portugal and it was interesting to know about this tradition in other countries in northern Europe. We got to know that there was also someone else (Knecht Ruprecht) who punnished or frightened the children who didn't behave well.
Our St. Nicholas comes only in the night from the 24th to the 25th.
I guess we have so many of these - how would you say... characters... ;) on that day you say your St. Nicholas comes that's Christmas day...on that day we got Bozicek - that's like... I think it's Kris Kringle or Santa Claus... it's not the same as our Miklavz - St. Nicholas... than on new year you got Dedek Mraz- Santa Frost...you must have read it already on Sasa's blog...
Post a Comment