Author: The President
The Dutch original follows the English translation.
As a young boy, Sinterklaas Eve on December 5, the eve of his birthday, was pretty much the most exciting day of the year. Good children got presents from Sinterklaas, bad children could be punished by Zwarte Piet by getting blows with the rod. In case of serious misconduct you could even be transported to Spain in Black Pete’s bag. Recently, Sinterklaas apologized for this on national television. Hopefully, the future 2030 Saint (pictured below) will prove just as forgiving to sinful children.
We would put our shoe by the stove for weeks in advance and every morning I would sneak down to see if Pete had dropped by. He would reportedly come down the chimney to put some candy in. Sometimes I would put a carrot in the shoe for Santa’s horse.
On that particular night I would sit in the room with my parents, waiting for Sinterklaas to visit. The tension was unbearable. The moment I heard a knock on the window and I would crawl into the corner of the sofa with fright. The tension was not over. Sinterklaas and Piet would make us wait at least a further 10 minutes. Eventually, they would come in and with awe I would look up at Saint Nicholas and with due respect I would keep my distance from Piet. In the end it usually turned out that my sins were not too bad, so Piet would start handing out candy and eventually a gift in the name of Saint Nicholas. The Saint usually appeared as an old, dignified gentleman who was mentally no longer completely there while Piet acted as his right-hand man who would help the somewhat dull Saint. The Saint did not seem to be able to make it on his own and gratefully relied on his helper.
And let’s face it. Black Pete eventually had to do all the logistical work. It is clear that without Pete we could forget about our candy and presents. In the end we had nothing but awe and respect for Black Petes.
Now that I am much older, that picture appears to be incorrect if we are to believe the colored non-European immigrants. In our guests opinion Black Pete is an expression of racism. Neither I nor my parents had any notion of this in my childhood. So it is not surprising that we now experience this as insulting and find it strange to have to integrate into our own country.
That traditions slowly change is true of all times and places and the fact in itself is not a problem either. It is the way in which it happens that is bad. It is also strange that immigrants of color do not want to be associated with some of the best-oiled distribution network out there. Even more astonishing is the criticism when one considers that Zwarte Piet has been allowed to beat young white children for decades without ending up in jail!
The parallels between Sinterklaas and his Piet and contemporary society are abundantly clear. The original population is aging rapidly and can be compared with the older, somewhat senile, generous Saint Nicholas. The young immigrants are comparable to, according to legend, Moorish Black Petes. The Moors were a North African Berber tribe and therefore Muslim.
The comparison becomes even clearer when one considers that our Western societies have been playing Santa Claus for its citizens and immigrants for years. Guess who is currently delivering the gifts ordered by the Internet, either for one’s self or others. These are predominantly the colored Muslim immigrants in their vans. In any case, it all fits nicely in with the vision of our political elite about how our society should develop.
All these discussions in recent years have de facto killed the Sinterklaas tradition. Most retailers are already skipping the whole celebration in favor of Christmas.
The downfall of a tradition: Black Pete – Zwarte Piet
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