Sinterklaas is coming

When I was small, living in the Hague, the Netherlands, kids visited St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas in Dutch) just as they visit Santa Claus in the U.S.  Because the Sinterklaasfeest begins on the evening of Dec. 5 and continues into the 6th, the Sint was available a little sooner than Santa is.  Dressed in his saintly garb, he comes via boat, supposedly from Spain, and rides a white horse throughout Holland as he distributes gifts to the kids.  He is accompanied by his servant Zwarte Piet (Black Pete).  Sometimes there's more than one Zwarte Piet with him.  As a child, I was terrified of Zwarte Piet because I was told that he put all the bad kids in a bag and took them back to Spain.

I remember being scared to death when I stepped off the airplane in New York City at age three-going-on-four and saw not one or two black people but many.  I was sure I had landed in Spain and started to scream.  My mother quickly had to explain that some people come in that color and that they are perfectly nice.  I took a little convincing but soon learned that was so.  Now, with refugees and immigrants streaming into the Netherlands, I am sure Dutch children encounter quite a few guys like the smiling Piet below who, according to Facebook, enjoys his job every year.

These days, I imagine kids aren't threatened in the negative way of the 1950s, but there is still a great deal of controversy about Piet in the Netherlands.  Some feel it is racist to have him at all, others decry painting white faces black with exaggerated red lips, and still others feel it is part of a fun tradition that should be kept.  Some say Piet is black because of going up and down chimneys all evening.  He is dressed as a Moor because, after all, he is supposed to have come from Spain.
 
If only I'd been taken to the public library in Holland where, apparently, Sinterklaas and several Zwarte Piets conduct storytime and do other nice things with kids these days.

 If you want to follow the tradition, put a shoe by the fireplace or door on Dec. 5.   Make sure to leave some straw and carrots for the Sint's horse, too.  In the morning, you might just find a surprise, courtesy of the Sint's henchman, Piet.