If you were a child in the Netherlands, you would be getting excited because December 5th is coming — the Eve of Sinterklaas — St. Nicholas, when children receive gifts from Sinterklaas. The following day — December 6th — is the official day of commemoration of Nicholas. It is also the day of his commemoration in Eastern Orthodox churches following the “new style” calendar, while those who keep the “old style” celebrate him on December 19th.
Now oddly enough, there are folk names that apply here. May 9th (May 22 “old style”) commemorating the “translation” of his relics — meaning simply the moving of his relics from one place to another (from Myra to Bari in Italy) — is popularly referred to as Nikola Veshniy/Никола Вешний — “Spring Nicholas.” That distinguishes it from the day of commemoration of his “repose,” meaning his death — December 6th (19th old style) — known as Nikola Zimniy/Никола Зимний — “Winter Nicholas.”
Now the significance of this for students of icons is that these two appellations apply also to the commonly seen icons of Nicholas. Here is how:
Icons of Nicholas without his bishop’s crown/mitre are popularly known as “Spring Nicholas”:
By contrast, icons depicting Nicholas in his bishop’s crown are called “Winter Nicholas”:
An easy way to remember the difference between “Spring Nicholas” and “Winter Nicholas” is that Nicholas “puts on his hat when it gets cold.”
Now as you can easily tell from the border ornamentation of both these icons, they date to near the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century.
