traditionally dutch! Sint MAARTEN

WHO IS SINT MAARTEN?

Martinus of Tours was born in Hungary around the year 316 and at the age of 15, he became a soldaat in the Roman leger. He was stationed in Frankrijk.

One cold wintery day he arrived in the French town of Amiens and at the stadspoort he came across a bedelaar. Maarten impulsively cut off half his mantel and gave it to the poor beggar so that he could stay warm. He could only give half of his mantel as the other half was the property of Rome. Later that night he dreamt about Jesus who was wearing the half mantel that Maarten had given to the bedelaar. Maarten saw this as a sign from de hemel, left the Roman leger, got baptised, and became a priest dedicated to helping the armen.

He later became the bishop of Tours and after his death, he became Sint Maarten. The cutting of the mantel and sharing with the armen forms the basis for the Dutch celebration of Sint Maarten.

bobbie viert sint maarten (easy dutch story book)

WHAT DO THE DUTCH DO FOR SINT MAARTEN?

Sint Maarten is celebrated on the 11th of November, the day that Maarten died. Although Sint Maarten is actually a catholic celebration, it no longer has a religious tone in the Netherlands.

When it starts to get dark outside, the Dutch children go from door to door, carrying a lampion and singing Sint Maarten liedjes. Originally the lampionnen were made by hollowing out a turnip or a sugar beet and putting a kaars inside it. Nowadays, kids make them out of paper at school.

The children sing Sint Maarten liedjes and play the role of the bedelaar. The people share their wealth with the children by giving them snoepgoed. After an evening of begging for snoepgoed, the children can’t keep all that goodness! They are expected to give away half of their snoepgoed to less fortunate children who can’t go collecting themselves. This way they are reliving Sint Maarten’s act of sharing with the armen.