Sinterklaas (also called Sint-Nicolaas or De Goedheiligman in Dutch) is a traditional Winter holiday figure in the Netherlands, Aruba, Suriname, Netherlands Antilles and Belgium, celebrated every year on Saint Nicholas’ eve (December 5) or, in Belgium, on the morning of December 6.
The Sinterklaas feast celebrates the name day, December 6, of Saint Nicholas (280–342), patron saint of children and sailors. Saint Nicholas was a bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey.
In earlier times, the feast was both an occasion to help the poor by putting some money in their shoes (which evolved into putting presents in children’s shoes) and a wild feast, similar to Carnival, that often led to mass public drunkenness. After the Netherlands became a largely Protestant country, many Calvinists argued that the feast of Sinterklaas was too ‘paaps’ (a slang term for Catholic) and should be abolished. However, the feast was so popular, even among the Protestant population, that these efforts were largely unsuccessful.
