Is there more than one Saint Nick?

More than 4,000 people dressed as St. Nicolas filled Kraków's Main Market Square on the jolly ol' man's feast day. It set a new Polish record as the previous number was 2,000 set last year in Chrzanów.

The gathering of St. Nicholas' on Kraków's Main Market Square

 

 

St. Nicholas' Day is an eagerly awaited event for children across the country. Polish children customarily receive presents on both St. Nicholas's Day and on Christmas Eve (Wigilia).

Children write letters to St Nicholas stressing how well they have behaved and let him know what might make the perfect present. Those that have been nice collect the gifts, which appear, as if by magic, on the morning of December 6th.

Saint Nicholas' Day, observed on December 6  or December19  in Eastern Christian countries, is the feast day of Saint Nicholas. It is celebrated as a Christian festival with particular regard to his reputation as a bringer of gifts, as well as through the attendance of Mass. In Poland, boys would dress as bishops begging alms for the poor. In Ukraine, children wait for St. Nicholas to come and to put a present under their pillows provided that the children were good during the year. Children who behaved badly would find a lump of coal under their pillows. 

The American Santa Claus, is derived in part from Saint Nicholas and in part from the Dutch Sinterklaas, the saint's name in that language. However the gift giving associated with these descendant figures is associated with Christmas Day rather than Saint Nicholas Day itself.