tot ziens sinterklaas!

I think that this will be my last post about Sinterklaas (at least until next year), since the Sint's business in the Netherlands for this year concluded on Saturday. I have to say, that I really enjoyed my first Sinterklaas day. It was really gezellig, and I think I will miss it (and all the fanfare surrounding it) when I am in Canada next year. This year I was lucky enough to get invited to a friend's house to celebrate with him and his family - much nicer than spending the holiday home alone, since all of my flatmates had departed to spend the day with their own families.

Even with all of the craziness leading up to the big day, December 5th, a.k.a. Pakjesavond (presents evening) - the parades (parades, and more parades!), decorations in the streets and in the Bijenkorf, the Sinterklaas films and themed television shows (such as Het paard van Sinterklaas, The Horse of Sinterklaas, which was super cute and tied in some immigration/ integration-related themes), people working on their poems for their surprises - the holiday itself, as I experienced it, was quite a bit nuchter, quieter, than my experience of Christmas back in Canada. While there were no little kids at the celebration I attended, I couldn't help but think that Pakjesavond was nonetheless a little less commercialized and hectic than your average North American Christmas... though perhaps that was because I didn't have to rush around buying presents and composing rhyming poems for everyone on my list!

Unlike my Canadian Christmases, which have always been celebrated in the morning (and as a kid, as early in the morning as possible), gifts here are opened and exchanged in the evening. I can only imagine what a tense day it must be for little kids! When walking along the Westerdijk in Hoorn I saw the sheer excitement and joy on a little girl's face when the back of a car was thrown open to reveal all the presents brought for her and her family by a Zwarte Piet. Where I was, we had a nice festive dinner, some nice festive drinks, and watched some nice festive holiday-related television shows (notably Paul de Leeuw - who had Sinterklaas on as a special guest, as well as a gay Piet and the official HoofdPiet, head Pete - as well as a very, very Dutch game show called Ik hou van Holland, in English, I love Holland). At one point during our quiet, relaxed evening, there was a great knock at the door, and yes, an unseen Zwarte Piet had left us a burlap sack full of presents! Even though I'm not Dutch, the Sint had brought me a few gifts as well (I have been quite good this year), and I even had a nice little poem (in Dutch). These presents were handed out of the sack over the course of the evening amidst much laughter and smiles. I think that the scene really embodied the untranslatable, typically Dutch feeling of gezelligheid, and I feel really lucky to have been able to experience it.

So, that was my first, but hopefully not my last, Pakjesavond. Who knows if I will get to celebrate the holiday again in the future, or if it will be the same? I have heard a lot of discussion here and there about how this holiday is changing. People are concerned about its commercialization, about the growing popularity of the American (and therefore commercial) Santa Claus in Holland, and of course, about the discussion and sometimes debate surrounding the traditional figures themselves and whether the holiday should, at least in some respects, be changing with the times.

Some friends had a lively and slightly incredulous conversation about how there is talk about starting to have an official 'goodbye' event for Sinterklaas. As it is now, the Sint is here from mid-November and then quietly returns to Spain after his big day. This is the way its been for quite some time, but now people seem to be saying that children are confused about why their friend has just up and disappeared. The solution, say some, is to have a proper goodbye for the lot of them and thus, help keep the children from being traumatized by his abrupt departure. The discussion over this in my kitchen concluded that this was quite absurd (to put it politely) and that it was just a bid to make more money off the holiday - making it in some ways "more American," which understandably, doesn't sit well with many Dutch people.

There is also concern that Santa Claus (often described as a poor, commercial version of "the real thing," the Dutch Sinterklaas) is becoming a bigger deal here, horning in on the territory of Sinterklaas as it were. As I wrote about before, Christmas isn't that big of a deal here, and Santa is definitely not seen as belonging here. Kind of interesting, to me anyway, as a narrative defining Dutch culture. I actually even saw an interesting Christmas tree-top decoration of Sint-Nicolaas, that someone was giving as a surprise. While we both thought that it was a bit interesting that it was a Sinterklaas figure meant for a Christmas tree (which actually has nothing to do with the Dutch December 5th holiday), it was more interesting as a commentary on the assertion of Dutch identity, which was the real point of interest for the person it was given to.

As for the blackness of Zwarte Piet, I think I will have to make my own notes and think on it until next year (or until I start outlining my dissertation), since for now, Sinterklaas has gone on his steamboat back to Spain until next year, and all the Zwarte Pieten have gone with him.

Finally, I have heard that next year Greenpeace is threatening to do some kind of action against the Sint if he comes from Spain via his traditional, but in their eyes, outdated and environmentally irresponsible mode of transportation. The environmental organization would like to see the Sint come next year on a sailboat instead. But, seriously, I have to ask, if the Dutch refuse to substitute the sometimes-questionable and controversial Black Pete for other coloured Petes, does Greenpeace really think that they'll have much success in getting the lot of them here from Spain on a sailboat rather than the iconic steamboat?