Sinterklaas

December 5th 2012

Today is a very special day in the Netherlands... It's SINTERKLAAS. This means that is it the birthday of the beloved Sinterklaas (who is definitely not the same as the father Christmas we have in the U. K. ). Now Sinterklaas is a man who wears a read cloak with a white beard and he lives in Spain. He has friends called Zwarte Piets who help him to deliver his presents. These characters are black (with soot) and wear a kind of pasty hat with matching trousers and waist coat.

In late November Sinterklaas and the Zwarte Piets come to the Netherlands in a steam boat. You can actually see signs on the entrance to docks telling them the right way to go. For the next few weeks they live in and tour around the country much to the children's excitement. There is even a T. V. chanel which goes alongside the news which will have some sort of story about how the presents/ horses/ money has gone missing and they must find it before Sinterklaas itself.

The shops also prepare themselves for the day of Sinterklaas by playing cheesy songs and decorating the windows with Zwarte Piets in various activities. For example, a sweet shop had on lucky Piet bungee jumping! They also have jars of Peppernoten and sweets for customers. Peppernoten are small round biscuits which taste of cinnamon.

Other foods are:

• Chocolate letters - it is traditional to have one for the first letter of your name.
• Chocolate/ truffle/ plain Kruidnoten – these are small ginger biscuits which can come covered in yummy things. These are my favourite things (EVER! ). Unfortunately I found a place where you can buy a kilo for 4 euros. As such I have been having them with yoghurt for breakfast.
• Marzipan balls and Banketstaaf – Almond paste wrapped in a pastry.

On the 4th of December the children put out their shoes out by the chimney with some hay or carrots in them for Sinterklaas' horse. They then go to bed and hope that they will get a gift. If children have been naughty, they are told that Sinterklaas will put them in a sack and take them to Spain (which does not sound too bad to me! )

So the day comes and the children wake to find that their house is a little different to the night before. The Zwarte Piets are quite clumsy so there will probably be signs that they have been like small biscuits called pepernoten scattered around the house. There will also be gifts in the children's shoes (if they are lucky).

So what about the adults? Well there is a whole different set of traditions that come into play... One tradition I heard about is where families will pick a name out of a hat; this is the person they must make a gift for and write a poem. But it is no ordinary poem... This poem will be teasing its recipient! What a nice way to defuse family squabbles hey?

So how about what I got up to? Last night, I was invited to a Sinterklaas evening which was organised by the social sciences student board. We were asked to bring two gifts one old and one new with a value of no more than 2 Euros. So we put all the presents into the middle and suddenly there was a knock at the door. 'Hello! ' we shouted and in came Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet! The Dutch students all began to sing a song and clapping their hands. They took a seat in the circle and then the game began.

The game was a dice game where each person in the circle took turns to roll. Different numbers on the dice signified different things.

Round 1

1. Pick up a gift.
2. Steal a gift from someone else.
3. Give one of your gifts to someone else.
4. Pick up a gift.
5. Sing a song.
6. Pass the gifts one space to the right.

This continues until all the gifts in the middle are taken.

Round 2

1. Unwrap a gift.
2. Everyone move one space to the left (leaving the presents where they are).
3. Swap someone’s gift with another persons.
4. Take someone else's gift for yourself.
5. Sing a song.
6. Give someone a gift.

This continues until the gifts have all been unwrapped and the gifts you are left with are yours!

As you might see this lead to brutal stealing, swapping and fighting over what people thought were the 'best' presents. There were some really silly presents in the mix like a 'duck with a dick' and some pink pantihose. All in all it was a really silly, funny and thoroughly Dutch evening

So one last note: As I mentioned the Zwarte Piets are black workers of SinterKlaas. There is an ongoing debate as to whether this is racism. Of course the Dutch themselves do not think that it is saying that the characters are black because they have been down so many chimneys. On the other hand, the dolls in shops representing the Zwarte Piets look rather like a certain doll which was banned in the U. K. There is also some graffiti which I see daily on my way to university which simply says 'Zwarte Piet iz racizime. ' I was asked what I thought of it all be a few Dutch students. To be honest, I really have no strong feelings about it either way. As an anthropologist, I think that it is important to listen to all sides of the story and take things for what they are. Overall it seems that the only people who think that it is racist are the people who visit the Netherlands from abroad who have a problem with the idea. Aside from that, the whole thing is just a chance for people to get together and have a good time with no malicious intent. But you may have more thoughts on the matter...

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