Sinterklaas is coming tonight
Tuesday, December 5th 2006.
I’m excited, Sinterklaas is coming tonight. No, not Santa Claus, but his ancestor in the Low Countries, according to the true story. I’m setting out a carrot for his horse and some good booze for him and his helper, Zwarte Piet. Can you believe that precisely this weekend, Food Lion ran out of speculaas?
But, what I find disturbing on Wikipedia’s Zwarte Piet page:
The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see discussion on the talk page. This article has been tagged since July 2006
Purrrleaze people.. Racism? It’s just folklore!
Food Lion sells speculaas? Really? Where? In Chapel Hill?
Yeah! The one at Carrboro Plaza.. and it’s Lotus too. Well, actually, Biscoff (same thing). Nothing quite like Dandoy’s giant Sinterklaas speculoos though.
Of course the neutrality is disputed. It is a colored picture of the old geezers for sure. If you don’t believe in it you dispute, that must be the reason.
O heck what the crap we still celebrate.
Gefeliciteerd met de verjaardag van Sinterklaas.
Sinterklaas definitely has a racist history. Zwarte Piet as a black man originated as a slave back during Dutch (not sure to what extend the Flemish were involved in that though) slave trading days. That said, I think people do freak out a little too much about it sometimes.
Frankly, I find it more disturbing that Zwarte Piet will stuff you into Sinterklaas’s bag and take you to Spain if you’ve been bad. Who thought that one up?
David Sedaris has a really funny essay in his “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” where he talks about Dutch, French and American Santa traditions.
Well, some people were taught that Zwarte Piet’s skin is black because of the ashes in the chimney that he has to climb through to get the gifts into the people’s houses. Both traditions exist.