Thursday, December 3, 2009

St. Nicholas Day

I've been learning about the Dutch holiday, "St. Nicholas Day." Ko refers to the American Santa Claus as "an abomination," which I think it rather harsh. However, many of the Dutch traditions are quite different (certain people have objected, probably fairly, to the term "bizarre").

Here's the deal: St. Nicholas lives in Spain most of the year. He comes to The Netherlands on a steamboat with his horse, Amerigo. He also comes with a little friend, called "Zwarte Piet," or "Black Pete." They leave presents in your shoes on the night of December 5.

Here's a picture of St. Nicholas:

It's quite easy to see how Santa Claus could come from this guy. The thing that really gets me, though, is Black Pete.

It's easy to see why this tradition doesn't really go over that well in the U.S. I was alone in being shocked that a white guy would put on black make-up and play the good Saint's comic sidekick. But he's everywhere in the Netherlands. Ko assures me that he's black because he shovels coal on the steamboat. However, according to Wikipedia, that's only one possible explanation. I also enjoyed this particular quote in the article:

"If they have been really bad, Black Pete may take them back to Spain in his sack, a tradition now frowned upon under the influence of modern child psychology."

Ko seemed to have been told about getting taken back to Spain in a sack, so perhaps it's not that frowned upon.

Anyway, I had already heard of some of this because of David Sedaris story "Six to Eight Black Men." Ko swears that this is not the case, that Black Pete has never been a slave, and his skin is only that color because of the coal. I'll leave it to you to decide.