If you are reading the title in English, then you might have already crinkled your forehead and wonder why Elf November hasn’t got any pointy ears and what the hell is “dag”.

If you are confused,  I don’t blame you. It does sound like English with bad, bad spelling, but isn’t.  Literally translated, it means:

• Elf (eleven)
• November (yes, it’s the same month November like we all know it in English) 
• Is (yes as in the English word is)
• de (the)
• dag (day)

The entire sentence is a part of the many songs kids sing while going their rounds to collect candies during Sint Maarten (or Saint Martin’s) celebrated on the 11th of November. 

Needless to say, this one song has been in my head over and over and over in the last week or so:

Elf november is de dag (11 November is the day)
Dat mijn lichtje, dat mijn lichtje (That my light, that my light)
Elf november is de dag (11 November is the day)
Dat mijn lichtje branden mag (that my light may burn)

And if you read notes, this would be what it sounds like:

Source: Liedjeskist.nl

 

To the uninitiated, Sint Maarten is the Dutch ”Halloween” – all the treats without the tricks. 

There are no scary or funny dress-ups. Instead, the kids and kids only (accompanied by adults if they are younger) would go door-to-door with hand-crafted lanterns in their hands. (I wrote about this last year in this post).

Spud and Squirt, accompanied by their Papa then trolled strolled the neighbourhood; first at their Oma & Opa then followed by our own neighbourhood. I stayed home to listen to kids singing at my doorstep (every 5 minutes for 2 hours) and then offered them their goodie-bag loot nicely wrapped up.

We have pretty sizable kids’ population here. I gave away at least 35 goodie-bags!

 

Not to be out-done, our 2 critters came back with their loot, with double the amount of candies that would last them for another year. 

All in a day’s work of a typical Dutch kids! Of course we’ve told them them that parent-tax applies.