How to Celebrate: Saint Nicholas Day 2023 (December 6th) | Days Of The Year! The feast day Saint Nicholas of Myra, commonly known as the Feast of Saint Nicholas, is celebrated on December 5 or 6 in Western Christian nations and on December 19 in Eastern Christian nations adopting the ancient church calendar. It coincides with Advent. With special consideration for Saint Nicholas Day‘ status as a gift-bringer and attending church services, it is observed as a Christian holiday.
Boys have long worn bishop’s robes and pleaded for charity for the needy in Germany and Poland, two European nations. If the children were nice during the year, Saint Nicholas Day will bring them a gift and leave it beneath their pillows in Poland and Ukraine. Children who misbehaved could anticipate finding a bit of coal or a twig beneath their beds.
Children leave a shoe loaded with hay and then a carrot to Saint Nicholas’ horse as in Netherlands and Belgium. On Saint Nicholas Day, recipients can add their own amusing rhymes to presents. Children placing their shoes in the entryway on Saint Nicholas Eve in the hopes that Saint Nicholas may leave some pennies on the soles is one tradition connected to Saint Nicholas Day in the United States.
He is indeed the patron saint of several causes, which is one of the interesting facts about Saint Nicholas.
- Sailors, tourists, clergy, students, and criminals are a few examples of the reasons.
- On the southeast coast of present-day Turkey, in the hamlet of Patar, he was born.
- Water reputed to have healing properties flowed in his grave after he was buried in a tomb at Myra. The Manna of Saint Nicholas is what it is known as.
- The Feast of St. Nicholas is another name for December 6 and is extensively observed across Europe.
Observing Saint Nicholas Day 2023
Include Saint Nicholas Day customs in your seasonal celebrations. Place a surprise or present into someone’s shoe. It does not have to be a complicated thing.
- You may leave a kind letter or a little, gift-wrapped chocolate.
- Drop either a penny or a tree ornament.
- Put some fresh socks or a stress ball in someone you care about’s shoes.
- Two other amusing presents to smuggle into a pair of shoes are a humorous air freshener or a little bath bomb.
History of Saint Nicholas Day
Saint Nicholas Day was mostly lost in Protestant Europe after the Reformation, but Sinterklaas, a Dutch holiday, preserved his remembrance. Black Peter (Zwarte Piet), who has been variously depicted as a freed slave or even a Moor, is believed to accompany St. Nicholas when he rides in on horseback on the day of his feast day to deliver gifts and sweets to good children and coal, potatoes, or switching to naughty ones.
The English-speaking majority changed him into Santa Claus after the Dutch brought the custom to New Amsterdam (today New York City) within American colonies. His story of a loving old guy was combined with ancient Nordic folktales about a magician who punished bad children and gave gifts to good ones.
The resultant American image of Santa Claus coalesced in the late nineteenth century, and he’s been the benefactor of the Christmas holiday of giving ever since. In Britain, Father Christmas mostly took his position.
Traditions Saint Nicholas Day
Saint Nicholas Day continues to be a day when children receive special cookies, sweets, and presents in various regions of northern Europe, notably the Low Countries as well as some German-speaking regions. Children frequently leave notes for St. Nicholas as well as carrots or grass for his donkey or horse in various locations.
In the morning, they discover little gifts in their shoes, stockings, or dishes that they had left out for him. Common candies that symbolize St. Nicholas’ fabled rescue of three poor girls by covering their dowries with gold include oranges and chocolate coins. Additionally, candy canes in the form of a bishop’s crosier are distributed.
