Saturday, December 6, 2014

Christmas Creep: Sinterklaas


Since every 5th or 6th of December are the days set aside for the celebration of Saint Nicholas, or Sinterklass and today is the obviously the 6th, our Christmas Creep of the day....Sint-Nicolass.  There are similar celebration in other northern European countries, but nowhere is it the big, big thing that it is in The Netherlands!  


In most northern European countries there are traditions of some sort that related to a troll or devil creature associated with the Christmas season to keep naughty kids in line, but only in The Netherlands has that tradition sifted over to a kind of "colonial anxiety."  This celebration is deeply rooted in the memory of that county's rough past with Spain.  Saint Nick supposedly sails from Spain with the boat load of "moorish" helpers known as Zwarte Piet or Black Peter.  Sinterklass carries a huge book that supposedly has all the names of the nice children from the year, and, more importantly, a list of all the naughty kids.  The naughty kids.  These said naughty kids are rounded up (you know:  kidnapped) and taken back to Spain--never to return to their native country.


Increasingly there has been some push back against the racial tone of the Black Peters, and it has been proposed that they be painted other colors, such as pink, green, etc.  There was even a rainbow paint that was proposed this year.  This year around 60 protesters were arrested in the Dutch country for disrupting a Sinterklass celebration over the Black Peter image.  You can read more about it here.

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