{"id":2431,"date":"2011-12-06T21:13:09","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T20:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/?p=2431"},"modified":"2011-12-06T21:14:55","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T20:14:55","slug":"leiwe-kleeschen-gudde-kleeschen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/06\/leiwe-kleeschen-gudde-kleeschen\/","title":{"rendered":"L\u00e9iwe Kleeschen, gudde Kleeschen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kind Saint Nicolas, Good Saint Nicolas,
\nbrings us all kinds of good things… <\/em> — Traditional Luxembourgish Carol<\/p>\n

Sch\u00e9i Kleeserchersdag! Happy Saint Nicholas Day! Or, as the partially-Dutch Bakker household says, “Happy Sinterklaas<\/a> Day!” <\/p>\n

Your best source of information on the holiday of December 6th is David Sedaris<\/a>‘s “Six to Eight Black Men,<\/a>” especially in audio form<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After listening to that story dozens of times over the past several years, Anita was determined to welcome Saint Nicolas (Kleeschen<\/em> in Luxembourgish) to Luxembourg. He was scheduled to arrive by train on Sunday the 4th<\/a> — presumably to allow enough time to find all of the naughty Luxembourgish children and give them their due. <\/p>\n

At first, Anita regretted going out in the rain. There wasn’t a whole lot of holiday spirit on the wet streets.
\n\"\"
\nBut then Saint Nick turned out of the parking lot and she got a nice photo of his ride.
\n\"\"
\nLong live Kleeschen!
\n\"\"
\nThe city government made sure to provide a nice backdrop for the official photos.
\n\"\"
\n“Schwaarze P\u00e9iter” according to the Luxembourgish Wikipedia, “Hous\u00e9cker” according to the local newspaper<\/a>, the dark side of December 6th is otherwise known as “Black Peter.” He wasn’t easy to capture on film. As the wikipedia<\/a> says, “Foreign tourists, particularly Americans, often experience culture shock upon encountering the character (to dress in blackface is a gross taboo in America).” (The shock must have made Anita’s hands shake.) It seems that this part of the tradition didn’t make it to Wisconsin<\/a>. (Thanks to Corry for the link!)
\n\"\"
\nSaint Nicolas is a far less controversial figure<\/a>. If I had to describe him to an American without photos, I’d call him a more dignified and less jolly version of Santa Claus. It wouldn’t be far from the actual story<\/a> to say that he’s Santa before the marketers got hold of him.
\n\"\"
\nThe tourist train was bedecked for its saint-pulling duties.
\n\"\"
\nSt Nick had two visits in this part of the city: the Christmas Market, and the Children’s Hospital.
\n\"\"
\nHous\u00e9cker was just a few steps behind. (Somehow, writing his name in Luxembourgish makes it seem more acceptable to me.)
\n\"\"
\nThe name is troubling<\/a> enough. But the real scandal is what Hous\u00e9cker had come to Luxembourg to do. Once again, I implore you to listen to David Sedaris’s masterpiece.
\n\"\"
\nTo see the truth, we must ENHANCE!
\n\"\"
\nThat’s a child’s leg, ladies and gentlemen. The naughty children of Luxembourg will be taken by Saint Nicolas and Hous\u00e9cker to Spain — where property values are depressed, government debt holds back the economy, and a right-wing government just came to power<\/a>. The horror!
\n\"\"
\nAs the two walking contradictions gave out treats (and possibly added to their haversack of naughty children), local helpers adjusted the heat on their surrey.
\n\"\"
\nThere are more photos from the local newspaper, the Wort<\/a>. As far as we know, the Bugle is your only source for 2011 Kleeschen VIDEO!
\n\"\"
\nErrr… it seems that YouTube might wind up in Hous\u00e9cker’s sack before long. You’ll have to check back later to see that exclusive video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kind Saint Nicolas, Good Saint Nicolas, brings us all kinds of good things… — Traditional Luxembourgish Carol Sch\u00e9i Kleeserchersdag! Happy Saint Nicholas Day! Or, as the partially-Dutch Bakker household says, “Happy Sinterklaas Day!” Your best source of information on the holiday of December 6th is David Sedaris‘s “Six to Eight Black Men,” especially in audio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,620,201],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2431"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2465,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions\/2465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}