Sint Maarten

sint maarten falls on the 11/11 and is supposedly a commemoration of saint Maarten who gave his best jacket to a poor man and went without during winter. They honour the day by creating paper/ cardboard lampions and going door to door singing a song. they then recieve candy or more tradiotionally mandarines and little koekjes. Its very cute. although for some strange reason people were also carving pumpkins... a little bit of the american influence no doubt.
This year the school children had the opportunity to go to De Kaap (the town hall) and participate in some artsy activities before going carolling.

The kiddies were supplied with carboard bags and lots of artsy stuff and they got to make their own carry bags for collecting their candies with. Everyone had a lot of fun and there was laughter all around. it was a shame that the weather was so horrible (although im told every year is the same) it was stormy and rainy and the wind was howling so first the organisers had the idea of holding a quick shindig in the gym. each one took a bowl of candy to a different corner and they turned the lights off and let the kids walk from person to person, carolling with their lampions.
it was so cute to hear the little ones sing haha.

 

After this the older kids ventured out into the streets to try out their charm on the locals. Sander insisted we go first to Jelmers house. haha. Poor guy was made to come to the door and listen to a bunch of little kids sing songs for candy

 

The first part of the trek was nice. and then it started raining haha. the poor little kids bags were ruined so i was stuffing candy for every tom, dianna and chuck in every pocket i had available. i had candy in my scarf, my hat, my shirt, my pockets and at one stage my mouth... that was purely for selfish reasons though haha.

We arrived home wet, cold and excited for some candy. Instead we ate pasta and went to bed with a few sneaky snacks in between haha. A great night out :)