Quick addition -- I just found out that one of my coworkers was Zwarte Pete this past week. This kid is tall, skinny, with bright blond hair and blue eyes...check out the dude on the right. Crazy!
Has anyone seen the show Californication with David Duchovny? If you haven't, do it. It's better than the X-Files (don't snicker, I liked that show) and they make lots of inappropriate references to pubic hair. This is my new Entourage.Photos still have to wait because I have now misplaced the chord that plugs into the computer. I get bonus points for organisation. Instead, I will tell you the magically xenophobic story of Sinterklaas!
Sinterklaas is the "cousin" of Santa Claus and visits all the little Dutch girls and boys on December 5 instead of on December 25 [note: Sinterklaas is actually the "father" of Santa -- Santa stories in England, Germany and Scandanavia are thought to have originated from the Sinterklaas legend]. And how does Sinterklaas deliver all the presents to all the homes? Firstly, Sinterklaas does not live in the North Pole, he lives in Spain, so it's not quite so long of a trip (he takes a steam boat over). And, the pragmatic people of the Netherlands gave him "helpers" (until recently called slaves) which run around and deliver all the presents for him. All his helpers are all named Zwarte Pete (Black Pete) -- at first I imagined something like the Oompa Loompa from the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie where they all look the same, but I was way off.
All the Petes are in fact supposed to be black (hence the recent PC trading of the term "slave" for "helper"). To portray Pete in the parades, the Dutch paint their faces black. It is a little bit uh, alarming, to see all these supposedly forward-thinking, tolerant, blue-eyed Dutch running around in black face. [Aside: Zwarte Pete supposedly wasn't invented to demean black people. In "real" history, he is thought to originally have been an Ethiopian slave who was freed by Saint Nicholas and then stayed with the saint out of gratitude.]
But back to the story. Unlike our Santa, Sinterklaus wears a bishop's outfit with a red hat and cloak, but he does have white hair and a white beard. For the week or so leading up to December 5, children put their shoes close to the fireplace before they go to bed and also set out water and sometimes a carrot. During the night, Sinterklaas/Pete places gifts such as chocolate coins, poems (wtf? who wants a poem for Christmas?) and papernoten (super tasty mini spice cookies which can also come covered in dark, milk and white chocolate) in the shoes of the good children. If you are bad, a Pete will put you in his burlap carrying sack and take you back to Spain!
