December 6th is Saint Nicolas Day which is celebrated here in Switzerland and we got to experience some of the festivities first hand. On December 1st, there are Saint Nicolas parades all over. There was one in Fribourg, and even though it was chilly and rainy, we went. Our neighbors (Chantal and Pascal) have gone almost every year since they were small and invited us to go with them. We got downtown just in time to see the parade which consisted of two high school bands and then Saint Nicolas riding on a donkey along with his entourage. Saint Nicolas (who is not the same as Santa Claus here) throws something like soft gingerbread and waves as he goes by. We managed to get some of the bread so I was able to try it and have the full experience. The parade ended at the big cathedral downtown -aptly named the St. Nicolas cathedral - where St. Nick gave a speech while the crowd packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the street listened. After the speech (which we didn't understand much of) we walked around the open market and then found a place to eat dinner. It was a fun evening and another glimpse into the culture in which we are living.
On the actual Saint Nicolas day, I went Christmas shopping with Chantal. We saw 3 different St. Nicolas in various stores or on the street. We even got an orange and some gingerbread from one! A tradition (as far as we can tell) here is for St. Nick to come on the 6th with a big bag of oranges, dates, figs, nuts and maybe some presents. So they were out in force distributing goodies to the shoppers of Fribourg during the day. That evening, Tom and I went to a friend's house for their traditional St Nicolas dinner. It consisted of bread men (instead of gingerbread men), cheese, dried meat, fruit and nuts and they shared stories of their Dec 6th traditions with us. It was neat to be included in their special day.
St. Nicolas gave his speech from the balcony of the church - right under the circular stained glass window. I don't know if you can tell, but the street is packed from where we are all the way to the church.
Chantal and myself waiting for the parade to pass us.
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