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Post by pieter on Dec 4, 2007 14:24:34 GMT -7
Sinterklaas ( Santa Claus)  Sinterklaas (also called Sint-Nicolaas in Dutch (pronunciation (help·info)) and Saint Nicolas in French) is a holiday tradition in the Netherlands and Belgium, celebrated every year on Saint Nicholas' eve (December 5) or, in Belgium, on the morning of December 6. The feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of, among other things, children. It is also celebrated to a lesser extent in parts of France (North, Alsace, Lorraine), as well as in Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and the Czech Republic. The traditions differ from country to country, even between Belgium and the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas' Eve, (December 5) is the chief occasion for gift-giving. The evening is called pakjesavond (" presents' evening"). Traditionally, presents are ingeniously wrapped, and are therefore called surprises. Also, presents are traditionally accompanied by a poem from Saint Nicholas. Sinterklaas is the basis for the North American figure of Santa Claus who later was ' re-designed' to match a cola company's needs in the 20th Century. It was during the American War of Independence, that the Roman-Catholic inhabitants of New York City, a former Dutch colonial town (New Amsterdam) which had been swapped by the Dutch for other territories, reinvented their Sinterklaas tradition, who was regarded as an alternative for the " Irish Catholic" Saint Patrick. The name Santa Claus is derived from older Dutch Sinter Klaas. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaaspl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaaspl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Pieten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Pietnl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afbeelding:Sinterklaas_2007.jpgnl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afbeelding:Piet_op_boot.jpg
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Post by pieter on Dec 4, 2007 14:34:17 GMT -7
A critical and political-correct Candadian Expat about Zwarte Piet (Black Pete): Zwarte Piet — a sinister symbol in a 'tolerant' countryAs Sinterklaas approaches, the Netherlands will be treated to repeated appearances by the man himself and his companion, servant, lackey — choose one — Zwarte Piet. The gleeful pair show up at regular intervals in department stores, city centres and parties.Traditionally, Sinterklaas (who is definitely not Santa Claus, the Dutch will sternly remind you) interrogates lap-sitting children as to their naughtiness and niceness while Piet throws candy and hands out gifts in a " jovial" way. The two roles are moulded by tradition and history, with echoes of the Spanish occupation and Europe's long history of Christianity coloured by Muslim influences. Sinterklaas is wise, authoritarian, good-natured but stern; Piet is surly, irreverent, undisciplined — and black. My first reaction to Zwarte Piet was one of absolute horror. Fresh from a politically correct university career in North America, the idea of what is essentially blackface struck me as an abhorrent anachronism, bizarre in a modern, " progressive" country. The Dutch will go to great lengths to explain that Zwarte Piet is not a caricature of a black servant, that he is not a racist stereotype playing step-n-fetch-it for his master. But that is exactly what he is. If the application of black make-up weren't enough to convince you, the "Moorish" outfit of earrings, kinky hair and pantaloons should cinch it. And there he is, doing his master's bidding. Surely this is most the offensive racial slur I've seen since the Japanese tar-baby doll scandal of the 1980s, and just as bad as anything you would have seen in the US South or, dare I risk stirring up the greatest of Dutch self-righteousness — during 1930s Germany. " Oh, but it's all in good fun," they say. " He's not a real black person." Yes, true, and that's exactly the point. If it were a real black person the act would be so humiliating as to provoke outrage. We would hope. But this is Holland and outrage is unsightly unless someone cuts you off on the highway. Outrage is not for the allochtonen (literally, " speakers of other languages" but used to mean mostly people of colour), who are preferred to stay put in their designated areas but who are increasingly causing trouble by " not fitting in". To understand the endurance of an icon like Zwarte Piet is to know the gaping divide between tolerance and acceptance, between a multi-cultural society and one which is Dutch with buitenlanders on the begrudging periphery. It is one of the subtle paradoxes of Dutch culture, but one I believe illustrates perfectly the hypocrisy and passive aggressiveness of the Dutch character. It explains the growing racial divides in this small country and why the Dutch just don't get it when it comes to integrating new populations. The result has been tension, fear, resentment and a generation of immigrant children who have been systematically excluded from Dutch socialisation. Is Zwarte Piet the cause of racial tension and the failure of immigrant groups to integrate? It's much more complicated than that. But it's a symptom of a society that in its self-congratulatory claims of tolerance denies some very sinister undercurrents — the sentiment that the best place for the black man is at the end of a figurative leash. November 2001, updated November 2002 Kevin Lowe is a Canadian expatriate living in Amsterdam.Subject: Zwarte Piet findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_19991203/ai_n13845748 |
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Post by bescheid on Dec 4, 2007 15:35:08 GMT -7
Dear Pieter
And I do mean {Dear Pieter}, you are such a wonderful person in your self...For it is to you, to bring up such of this, {SinterKlass} und Zwarte Piet. For it would to be of your Dutch humour and sense of reality combination that brings to us to your East. Our admiration of you to our West.
For it is of your sensitive nature, that creates the stir to our senses that all people are important, and we must make the best of this season of joy and insure we are still part of our world and that also that of our Lord.
Karl
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Post by pieter on Nov 29, 2011 8:58:31 GMT -7
American comedy club from AmsterdamI don't agree with this Dutch woman -Black Pete-. I think the Dutch Sinter Klaas and the Anglo-Saxon Sainta Claus traditions are two differant things. She might be right about the roots of the two celebrations, but it is to dogmatic to say " we were first". That is not important, Sainta Claus has more followers than Sinter Klaas. And whether it is a Coca Cola invention or an invention stemming from culture, religion or a farytale, does not matter. Fact is that these celebrations are important family oriented celebrations around a Western tradition. In the Netherlands you have people who celebrate Sinter Klaas (families with children, or just adults - a bunch of friends who do not believe anymore, but who continue the tradition, with presents and poems with the presents and to just have a good time at the evening of 5 december. Sinter Klaas birthday.) and other Dutch people who prefer to celebrate Sainta Claus -Kerstman = Christmasman in English- in the Anglo-Saxon or German tradition). I don't think that one is better than the other, they are just two completely differant things and differant celebrations. I follow the Sinter Klaas tradition and will celebrate it with friends the coming monday, and we will do so with nice food, drinks, Sinterklaas sweets and poems and presents for eachother. Naughty Black Pete borrows camera from bystander and gives it back after filming himself and Sinter Klaas. As a kid I believed in Sinter Klaas like all Dutch little childeren and was a little bit afraid that he would say something about me at my primary school when he visited us in the gym room, or that the naughty Black Pete's would do somthing unexpectedly. At home we sang Sinterklaas songs at Fireplace in the living room because we believed that the presents came throught the chimney entrance to the room. We layed carrots and a bowl of water there for the white horse of Sinterklaas. And when we came to the living room at the morning presents for me and my sister were laying there and the carrots and water had gone. Sometimes in the evening the doorbell rang and suddenly there was wat we called a large brown Jutes sack with presents and sweets. Sometimes it would rain ' pepper nuts' and sweets for us. (My father secretly from a corner from the street suddenly threw these things into the air, and we though the sweets and presents came from Sinter Klaas and his Black Pete's)  ' pepper nuts'  The brown Jutes sack from Sinterklaas, always carried by the Black Petes Ofcourse this Sinter Klaas celebration is especially pleasent and exciting for kids who believe in Sinter Klaas, and who sing songs and wait for him and his Black Petes to visit them!
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