Learning new traditions!
As we are bringing up our children in a different culture than our native Australian culture, we are learning all the new Dutch (well, new for us!) traditions at roughly the same time that the kids are learning them. Seeing as we are not Shell or ICC expats, we can't afford to be completely separate in our own bubble apart from the culture here in our adopted homes. As such, our kids go to a Dutch school and will grow up as Dutch kids (funnily enough, our oldest is a bit annoyed that she only has an Australian passport, and not a Dutch one...).
Sinterklaasjournaal
So, in this few weeks of lead up to tonight's Pakjesavond, we have been following every night the Sinterklaasjournal. We began doing this a couple of years ago, when our oldest started school, and when we first started hearing and learning about it. Basically, each year, there is a nightly TV broadcast (about 10 minutes, structured like a news segment) from the NPO (public broadcaster) which documents the arrival of Sinterklaas to Netherlands from Spain, and the several weeks of chaos as the Zwarte Pieten try to get the pakjes (presents) ready for the big event on 5th of December.
It's really a nice thing that all the kids at the school talk about, and they are on tenterhooks.... hoping that the Pieten will sort everything out, and that nothing will go wrong with them getting the presents to the right places on the right day!
Our little one isn't really quite understanding what is going on, but she enjoys watching the TV on the tablet.
This is the jaaroverzicht (the year overview) from last year, 2017.
Trippel Trappel
... and the other tradition that we seem to have begun with, is the yearly broadcast of Trippel Trappel Dierensinterklaas on the afternoon of the 5th of December. We are watching this as I'm writing this post up! It is a great little cartoon which documents the adventures of three little animals (dieren) who are trying to get their Sinterklaas wish-list to Sinterklaas before Pakjesavond.
A touch less scary than Tim Burton's Night before Christmas... perhaps that will be for when they grow up a bit!
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It's lovely seeing traditions from all over the world, this must have been so exciting for the little ones! I understand most of what they're saying in the video as my home language Afrikaans is derived from Dutch, just the pronunciation is very different :)
It's great that you can understand it! I gather there are still many similarities despite the regional deviations of the language. Do you do Sinterklaas still in South Africa?
Not like that, must be fun! When our children were small, the large companies used to arrange big Christmas parties for the kids and Santa Claus would arrive in all sorts of vehicles - fire engines being popular, sometimes a boat if the party was at a beach venue, it was always fun watching the little ones' excitement and sometimes fright when they saw the big bearded man in red ;)
It is great that they (all of you) are exposed to that culture and how nice that you are enjoying it! 💚
It is great, although sometimes I do find some of it a little bit strange...
This is do Nice we had a blast and great presents tonight
Great that you had a nice night! We are now starting to gear up for Christmas!
Thank you for sharing this with us. It is important to get involved in the culture. As a kid I grew up in Europe and we also embraced the culture . It made an impact on me to this day.
Well done
Yes, I think it is great to both bring your own culture and integrate with the existing culture! It really makes both sides much richer for the intermingling... well, that's my experience growing up in a melting pot like Australia! Although, I'm sure that there are many that disagree, I often think they are tilting at windmills and straw men....
It boiled down to respect.
Ignorance never leads to respect
Agreed, ignorance is really the biggest problem that can affect us. Learning and learning how to learn are really the most important skills that one can have.
Howdy sir bengy! It's so interesting learning all the new traditions of a different culture isn't it? Do you still maintain some Australian traditions even though you are in the Nethelands?
Australia is a bit of a young country to have real traditions... I know that the USA is also, but somehow Australia doesn't seem to have such an overt character to traditions. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing... just different!
interesting, very unique for sure!
Its great you and the kids are learning so much about a new culture and also that you share them with us
It's great to learn these things... it's hard to stay one step ahead of the kids though!
Ohh yes I would say almost impossible to keep up with the young ones
That sounds like such a fun tradition to tune in every night like that! I enjoy seeing different traditions from all over and learning what is similar and then some ways they are different. I do love the Nightmare Before Christmas! Somehow my almost 3-year-old niece has already seen that and she loves Jack. :)
Your 3 year old niece saw it? I can't believe that she isn't freaking out... or did you watch it and then hand her back to the parents!
Would you believe it was my mom (grandma) who watched it with her first? She's a pretty chill little kid, so it doesn't seem like much scares her at the moment. Though I'm sure that could change at any time!
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