• Shelena@feddit.nl
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    10 months ago

    In the Netherlands, we actually celebrate Sinterklaas (St Nicolas) on december 5th. It is when this guy comes to the houses of children to give them presents, like Santa does in the US, for instance. I even heard people say that Santa was derived from the figure of Sinterklaas, but I am not sure whether it is true.

    In the weeks before Sinterklaas comes to the house, children put their shoes near the fireplace (and if they do not have a fireplace usually near the heater). They might sing some special Sinterklaas songs and put a carrot in their shoe for the which horse that Sinterklaas rides. Then during the night Sinterklaas and/or his helper Piet come on through the chimney and put smallngifts in the shoes. There are also a lot of other traditions around the Sinterklaas celebrations and there are cadies and cookies that are only eaten around this time like pepernoten and speculaas.

    Sinterklaas has become controversial over the last few years, because according to the stories, he has helpers who are all called ‘zwarte Piet’ (black Pete). White people playing this character painted their phases brown or black and put on colorful clothing and black curly hair as well as making their lips red and put rings in their ears sometimes. One side of the argument says that they were representing black people or even slaves and basically that this was a case of blackface. The other side of the argument said that Piet was black because he came through the chimney and that this was not blackface. They also say that it does not matter to children whether Piet is black.

    The people saying that Piet is racist seem to be winning the discussion. In most of the larger cities, Piet now looks less like a charicature of a black person and more like someone who came through the chimney. In other places they still have the traditional zwarte Piet. There is even some violence in some cases, where the people who think that Piet is a racist charcter will protest against it during the public parts of the celebrations for the children. They then get violently attacked by the people wanting to keep the tradition as it is

    • lugal@sopuli.xyz
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      10 months ago

      The 5th of December?? In Germany, we celebrate it on the 6th in the morning, and we are the people who celebrate Christmas on the 24th (evening or afternoon)

            • lugal@sopuli.xyz
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              10 months ago

              Tbf this was before nation states so the modern borders of Spain didn’t exist yet so why no include modern day Turkey (which existed neither, nor was it populated my the linguistically and culturally ancestors of the modern Turks).

              • Shelena@feddit.nl
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                10 months ago

                I did not know that. That is actually a really good explanation for that. Shows how old the tradition is.

    • Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 months ago

      Hey thanks Ive heard this story, basically through a game of telephone, and basically believed dutch people are wicked racist

      • Shelena@feddit.nl
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        10 months ago

        Well, some of them are. However, I think one of the problems is that if you grow up with this celebration, it is a normal part of your life. White children do not get confronted with racism a lot, so they might not think about it and not notice that it is racist. At least, that was the case for me. Zwarte Piet was just the nice helper of Sinterklaas who brought me presents. I loved Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet.

        But as soon as someone said something, I knew they were right and I have been against Zwarte Piet ever since. For some people, it seems very hard to change their view of Zwarte Piet. It someone you loved when you grew up and now all of a sudden that makes you a racist? And they get defensive and even aggressive, unfortunately. It is still a heated debate, but the people wanting to change Zwarte Piet are winning, fortunately.

        • Daefsdeda@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          The only thing I am sad about is that the children now recognise who piet is. All though I do agree how zwarte piet is pretty racist/weird/outdated.

    • GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      I even heard people say that Santa was derived from the figure of Sinterklaas, but I am not sure whether it is true.

      Sinterklaas. Santa Claus. Sounds pretty related to me.

  • rozwud@beehaw.org
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    10 months ago

    Also why do the children look like weird little buff men? Is that an effect of the pickling?

  • Mikina@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    Thanks for this. It never occurred to me to look into St. Nicolas, even though it’s my name, and he’s way more awesome than I though.

    A patron of prostitues, hell yeah. I guess that explains my Mark of Slaneesh scarification.

  • FuyuhikoDate@silkky.pub
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    10 months ago

    Hey Morty… buuurp I… I am ressurecting pickled children Morty! I have now pickled children! I AM PICKLED NECROMANCER RIIIIICK!!!