sinterklaas is coming to town!

Well, Sinterklaas is actually here now...! On Saturday I trekked on over to Schiedam (about an hour by train from Amsterdam Centraal, but practically spitting distance from Rotterdam), with my flatmate and a couple of friends to the official arrival of Sinterklaas to the Netherlands for 2009. (You can click on the picture at left to follow a link to the Schiedam City site with more official or 'nice and in focus' pictures. Exciting!)

Sinterklaas is kind of the Dutch version of the North American Santa Claus. Both figures share the same kindly face, white beard, and penchant for dressing in red and being followed around by 'helpers', but are quite different in terms of cultural trappings and history, plus they come on different days. Sinterklaas or Sint Nicolaas actually comes on the evening of the feast day of Sint Nicolaas, December 5th. So, Sinterklaasavond (Sinterklaas evening) is actually the important holiday as far as gift giving goes, and Christmas is usually a quieter family occasion with a nice meal.

Every year, Sinterklaas comes by steamboat from Spain, (not the North Pole) with his 'helpers', the Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes). He also rides around once in the Netherlands on a white horse. (The connection from Spain has to do with the complicated history of Spainish colonialism as well as the history of the saint himself. The Zwarte Piet phenomenon is a bit more interesting - at least to me as a Canadian and as an anthropologist...) Since he comes by boat, he only ever makes his official landing in cities in the north of the country, along the coast. This means that while pretty much everyone in the country grows up watching his arrival and festivities following it on television, not everyone actually gets to experience seeing it first hand. (I feel pretty lucky.) When we arrived at the train station, my flatmate was "Oh, I forgot about this! We should have dressed up!" The station was awash in a sea of excited children dressed as mini-Zwarte Pieten, that is to say in funny little outfits with colourful pants and caps with feathers, or with the red mitre hat of Sinterklaas himself, or even with steamboat hats. The children weren't the only ones getting into the spirit of things. We came across two regular Zwarte Pieten at the station handing out peppernoten and candies from a burlap sack to all the kids, and to me as well. I have to admit, I was pretty excited to see Sinterklaas myself. After meeting up with the fabulous Ms. Long just outside the station, we followed the general flow of foot traffic to the parade route (via steamboat): the canal! That's right, I forgot that everything happens on the canals here, including most parades. We parked ourselves across from the Scouting centre, with it's homemade banner welcoming everyone as well as the guests of honour. We got there pretty early, and had to wait about an hour with the rest of the children before the bridge was raised and the Pakjesboot 12 steamed on by. In the meantime, there was a lot of singing (there is a song that everyone knows except me), and laughing, and waiting while the grey skies cleared and the sun came out. And then, the bridge was raised! And everyone began to cheer and sing and wave! Sinterklaas was here!


But, yeah, the Zwarte Pieten thing is still a bit of a mystery to me. Basically, the character of Zwarte Piet is played by a white Dutch person in a really colourful outfit and in blackface. Wearing blackface is pretty much unthinkable in North America, as the recent controversy over a group of white University of Toronto students dressed a Jamacian bobsled team for Hallowe'en has shown. But the histories and every day realities of racial politics have been very different in Europe and in North America, and have made people in Canada (in general) relatively more reflexive and cautious when is comes to discussions about race and ethnicity than here.

Of course, it's not all (pardon the expression) black and white, here either. I've heard a couple of different explanations, but I think that for the most part, when questioned about it people seem a little uncomfortable - whether its with the actual figure of Zwarte Piet or with the concerns over appearing racist. The first time I heard about Zwarte Piet was from my Dutch teacher back in Canada. She explained him as a remnant of history (i.e. colonialism, slavery) that had become entrenched in contemporary popular culture. She said that a few years ago, in an effort to be more politically correct, there were attempts to phase out black Pete with green and blue and every other colour Petes, but people thought it was ridiculous and the children wanted Black Pete back. Ms. Long's flatmate gave an alternative explanation: that Zwarte Piet is black because he's the one that goes down the chimney, and so is covered with soot. Also interesting is whether or not non-white Dutch people find the blackface of Zwarte Piet offensive. The jury is still out on this one. I've heard some people say that all the discussion is overblown and too worried about being politically correct. Alternatively, I've heard about a story where growing up black in the Netherlands meant that when your mom showed up to pick you up after school, lots of little white kids ran up to her shouting "Zwarte Piet! You're too early!" Either way, it is a very interesting phenomenon and has given me a lot to ponder in terms of how ideas of race, history, and normative culture fit together here.