Today was the annual Courses de la Saint-Nicolas (Saint Nicolas Race) for all the elementary school students in the Nancy area. Elementary school students from all over Nancy come to the Parc de la Pépinière to run between a 600-800 meter race, depending on their age. Lots of parents came to see their children run. Despite the chaos of trying to find your students after the race, the students had a lot of fun and got a Saint Nicolas gingerbread cookie for finishing. I think we had only one student who fell during the race, which is pretty good considering the crowd of children at the start line.
Here is a picture of the winners of the CP boys coming to the finish line:
This annual race is named in honor of Saint Nicolas because he is the patron saint of the Lorraine region. After many years of hearing "Saint Nicolas" in Christmas songs, I have finally learned the real story behind the saint. Saint Nicolas is not exactly Santa Claus, but I would argue the legend behind the saint inspired Santa Claus. The legend is that Saint Nicolas resurrected three children from a wicked butcher who had murdered them. Quite the gruesome story. Nowadays Saint Nicolas brings goodies or gifts to French children of the northeast regions in early December, and the children want to avoid Père Fouettard (Whipping Father- who whips naughty children) who follows Saint Nicolas on his rounds. Then Père Noël (Santa Claus) brings gifts on Christmas later in the month as well.
Here is Saint Nicolas greeting students at the park:
Happy races!
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