Sinterklaas, some Flemish cultural snippets, and Nederlands

20 November 2010

I am often asked by my South African friends and family how the culture in Europe (Belgium at least) differs from that of South Africa.

Today would be a good day to describe some of the differences as I am reminded of St Martin's day, which we've celebrated recently.  Firstly, one must remember that Flanders is a Catholic country, although Protestantism was very strong in the region that I live, just outside Ghent, and the Spanish, who were ruling in Belgium at the time, drove the Protestants from the northern part of Flanders, and as a result most of the intelligentsia, expertise and capital fled from cities such as Ghent and Antwerp to Holland. 

To get back to St Martin's Day: this is a day, which is celebrated in certain parts of Europe, and in the small region where I live, and the tradition is that the ‘Sint’ comes to Aalst and meets all the children and hands out gifts and presents. Essentially, it is an alms feast, that is a feast which is linked to the poor people and the children will go around knocking on doors and ask for cookies and gifts. 

On the other hand, the rest of Flanders mostly support and celebrate Sinterklaas who comes to Flanders early in December, whereas St Martin always comes on the 11th of November.  Sinterklaas usually arrives by boat, supposedly from Spain, whereas apparently St Martin' lives in heaven.  So Sinterklaas is celebrated on 3 December usually, and it is only since the last 10 years or so that the anglicized version of Santa Claus or Father Christmas has made any impact, and only because of the media and American advertising.  Previously the English Santa Claus was unknown, and not celebrated here.

The celebration which I find quite touching and which almost everyone here supports is, what would be called, all Saints Day in English.  It is the day when everyone remembers their departed loved ones.  Days in advance, the family go to the cemeteries and tidy up and clean the graves of their departed ones, it is quite striking to see even small children helping out and cleaning the grave of a departed grandmother.  By the way, family bonds are much stronger here it seems than in South Africa, especially that between grandparents and grandchildren.  Anyway, on that day, the tradition is that everyone takes a bunch of chrysanthemum flowers to the grave, and it is quite a sight to see a cemetery looking so colourful and joyful being bedecked by (usually yellow) chrysanthemums.  A touching sight and sunny, which one can only wonder at.  What a difference to the way to our dead are treated in South Africa!  I remember going to do see the graves of my parents and grandparents on my last trip to South Africa and it was a gloomy sight indeed.

Belgium suffered tremendously during the First World War, and one of the wonderful traditions that they maintain here is that for many years, probably since the First World War, at sunset, they have a lone bugler playing the Last Post at the Menen Gate in Ypres.  This has become so well known that one usually finds scores of tourists from the Anglo-Saxon world standing there, listening to it being played, often with tears running down their cheeks, a stark and poignant reminder of the carnage that World War I was.

And lastly, a note about books, and reading, here. Dutch is the language spoken by the Flemish, and they number about 6 million in total (plus another 10 m or so in Holland).  Which is why I think it is so impressive that they have more than 90 literary awards for the Dutch language!  And imagine such a small country has a book fair, which usually attracts about 200,000 visitors every year- often schools will close for the day to take their pupils to this book fair in Antwerp.  Another major difference with that of South Africa. 

Of course, one of the less positive things about the language here is that the Flemish are allowing the English language to gradually take over their language, especially amongst young people.