Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Saint Nicholas Saving Seafarers (December 6)

From the Belles Heures of Jean, duke of Berry, fol. 168r

The Limbourg Brothers, France (Paris), active ca. 1400-1416

Tempera and gold on vellum

The Cloisters Collection, 1954

The Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York

Did you know that if you say "St. Nicholas" really fast it comes out sounding like "Santa Claus"? I found that to be such an amazing piece of information when we were told by our music teacher in fifth grade. When I lived in Germany right after high school, I experienced my first real "St. Nicholas Day". My host mother advised me, "Putz deine Schuhe sehr gut, sonst laesst Sankt Nikolaus keine Suessigkeiten fuer dich." (Clean your shoes up well, or St. Nicholas won't leave you any goodies.) I must have spent an hour getting them just right before leaving one of them by my bedroom door and climbing the ladder up to my loft bed. The next morning I was greeted by a shoe full of candy and oranges. And although we didn't do an Advent Kalendar, I was able to see a few very neat ones, one in particular that I especially liked. It consisted of 18 hand-sewn pouches linked by a string and hung on the wall. Each pouch contained a different gift for each day leading up until Christmas. (I hope to make one similar to it for Sophia for next year.)