Ha HA! I'd never read that, and I really liked it.
You should save it and repost it for us at Christmas time, so we can pass it along to all our friends and family in that well-known holiday tradition of clogging inboxes. *g*
No, I've read the post, but I meant that the sort of Christmas sila_lumenn is describing is the american version, because in Europe we do things a bit differently. No reindeers for instance.
Ah! *dawn breaks over Marblehead* (which is also an American joke, come to think of it -- or Massachusetts, Marblehead being a small town on the east coast.)
You're right, he (or she) didn't pick up the reindeer till Clement Moore. I'd have to find a book to tell me about the modern version in the Netherlands, though. My acquaintance with the traditions there comes from Hans Brinker... Which is a good book, but not exactly current.
Maybe it's a good book, but it's fictional and written by an American. It's no part of dutch history or tradition at all.
I can't really comment on the dutch way of celebrating Christmas, since so many of your customs have spilled over and Christmas here has become a commercial gift-giving frenzy.
Oh, I can believe Santa Claus (American style) is a man. I'm just wondering whether 'Mrs. Claus' is too. There are nice, sweet, domestic, sentimental, organized guys out there! It's just a question of how many of 'em are straight...?
The "Hero of Haarlem" she made up out of whole cloth, as far as I know, but the customs and traditions she researched with friends from Holland and travelogues, so I expect they were as accurate as may be.
It's a long time since I've seen the book. It's not available in the library but when I still worked at the archives my boss used to mock it something fearful. It pissed him off that some dutch people embraced this imaginary legend as part of their culture, when it's tourist fodder only. The sad thing is that now there are plenty people who think Hansje Brinker was real.
The funny thing is that anyone who has actually read the book knows that Hans Brinker and the kid who theoretically stuck his finger in the dike are two different people entirely.
I was googling around and found a letter MMD wrote when she finally got to visit the places she'd been writing about.
The novel itself is pretty fulsome, but once you've accepted that you're reading a Victorian who is writing for children and gotten over that, the story (of the novel) is pretty good, and when I was twelve I adored it. But even at twelve I thought the bit with the kid putting his finger in the dike was pretty unlikely. Not to mention overly dramatic.
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rabidsamfan) wrote2007-05-20 08:58 am
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thanks! :D :D
it was great and funny! :D
Iris,
sincerely
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You should save it and repost it for us at Christmas time, so we can pass it along to all our friends and family in that well-known holiday tradition of clogging inboxes. *g*
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You're right, he (or she) didn't pick up the reindeer till Clement Moore. I'd have to find a book to tell me about the modern version in the Netherlands, though. My acquaintance with the traditions there comes from Hans Brinker... Which is a good book, but not exactly current.
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I can't really comment on the dutch way of celebrating Christmas, since so many of your customs have spilled over and Christmas here has become a commercial gift-giving frenzy.
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www.selinafenech.com
:)
Iris,
sincerely
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Similar sort of thing...
*giggles*
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I was googling around and found a letter MMD wrote when she finally got to visit the places she'd been writing about.
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/youth/classic/HansBrinkerOrtheSilverSkates/chap0.html
The novel itself is pretty fulsome, but once you've accepted that you're reading a Victorian who is writing for children and gotten over that, the story (of the novel) is pretty good, and when I was twelve I adored it. But even at twelve I thought the bit with the kid putting his finger in the dike was pretty unlikely. Not to mention overly dramatic.
But if you want to look at it, it's here:
http://www.thehollandring.com/hans-brinker-story.shtml
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http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/youth/classic/HansBrinkerOrtheSilverSkates/chap9.html