Its that time of year again...

the zwarte pieten
Originally uploaded by dutchlop.

...Where all the discussions open up again about 'zwarte piet' (black pete) and racism. Its a tradition in Holland, that Sinterklaas comes around the middle of November. He arrives on a boat 'from Spain' with all his helpers, who are named 'zwarte piets'. Now, in reality, these are a bunch of white dutchies dressing up in sort of festival carnival outfits, with poofy pants, painted black faces, painted red lips, and gold hoop earrings. They have hats with feathers on them. Oh yeah, and big black afro wigs. They lead Sinterklaas (who dresses like a bishop) around on a white horse. Its a Dutch tradition, and the children love it.

But, every year, the Saturday around Nov 15th he arrives on a boat, and in Utrecht this takes place on the Oude Gracht. Sinterklaas is basically St. Nicholas...but delivers presents as Santa Claus does in the US. In the US, Santa has elves, here, Sint has zwarte pieten. So, Sinterklaas arrives, and the zwarte pieten deliver presents to children and help Sint out. If children are naughty, he and his black petes take them back to Spain with them. Now, I don't see this as too shabby of a deal. Maybe I should be a naughty kid--take me away to Spain!

But why are there white people painting their faces black year after year, in the name of tradition? Where's the political correctness? Year after year, this tradition stays the same. I doubt it will ever change, knowing how things work here in Dutch society. Originally, the theory is that the zwarte piet represented the devil. Other things that are more mainstream and given as sort of an excuse as to why they do this, is that the Piets are Sint's Moorish friends from North Africa. Other people give the reason that they are black because they went down the chimney to deliver presents. I don't buy this because most dutch homes do not have chimneys and fireplaces. And what's the reason for the large red lips and afro wigs? In any case, its open for debate every year, and in typical dutch fashion, all this discussing things never leads to much of anything. The polder model, their own form of consensus decision making. Discussion leads to ...more discussion. Perhaps Americans are a bit too overly concerned about everything being politically correct, which can bring problems of its own in trying to get through anything without offending someone else....but this form of Dutch un-PCness is almost a little beyond belief for me, every year.

But I thought that this was something very typically dutch that needed to be mentioned on this blog. Last Saturday I went to go see his arrival again, but after 15 minutes, I lost interest. I only got a glimpse of Sint, but later in the day I did see a lone zwarte piet walking the white horse home.

And the best thing about this time of year: the cookies! Chocolate covered ginger cookies are so delish, I could eat them the whole day long. There are other traditional cookies and sweets, but these are my favorite by far.

If you want to read more about this sinterklaas tradition, here is a starting place.