The night of 5 December children leave a boot outside the door, and St Nicholas fills it with nuts, oranges and chocolate. Kept across Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Low Countries, distinct from Christmas.
6 December, the death day of Nicholas of Myra. In the Netherlands the main evening is the 5th, Sinterklaasavond.
The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.
Nicholas was a fourth-century bishop in what is now Turkey. The story that made him is the three sisters whose father could not dower them: he threw gold in at the window three nights running, which is why the gift arrives at night and unseen.
He is the origin of Santa Claus by way of the Dutch Sinterklaas, but on the continent he stayed a separate figure with his own day, and Christmas is not his.
The Phala almanac shows this day where it falls for your own city — sunrise, tithi and all five limbs, anywhere on earth. See how the almanac works →
