There are many stories about Sinterklaas.
(And I will tell them all at a later stage.)
Some say he comes from a far Asian country,
some say he comes from somewhere else.

We assume that he came from a town called Myra
that is now part of Turkey.

He died there between 300 and 400 AC.
Already he was becoming a wellknown person
and because of that
his bones were transported elsewhere,
as they did those days.

Here too, history has different versions.

In The Netherlands we say Sinterklaas comes from Spain.

No doubt about that !

Ofcourse other countries have different ideas.
That's why there are different names for him
and different ways of celebrating his life.
Even different ways of dressing him.

When the Dutch went to America
and founded a town "New Amsterdam",
known by all as:... New York.

Because of the difficulty of the pronounciation
"Sinterklaas" became "Santa Claus",
and to fit all religions
his Roman Catholic inspired clothes
were changed to the outfit he wears today.

So you see:
the memory of the outward appearance of a person
might fade in time,
but the significance of the story remains.