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Also to you and your family Duarte!!!
About the Santa prototype and Zwarte Piet:
Rita Ghesquiere: 'Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet are complex figures. Their origins extend far beyond the period of colonization. There are also different interpretations. Both figures have an ambiguous character in which positive and negative elements are incorporated. Already in the oldest legend 'The story of the three generals' an angry Nicholas speaks menacing language against the emperor. In the legend of Crux, Nicholas uses the rod. Several old legends also present Nicholas as a 'devil charmer'.
That idea is reinforced in the process of inculturation whereby Christianity incorporates ancient existing myths and rituals. Nicholas as a winter saint then takes on aspects of the Germanic god Wodan, who is both protective and threatening. Guido Gezelle speaks of 'Klaai den duvele' and refers to the English expression Old Nick, a synonym for the devil. From that point of view, Zwarte Piet is the defeated and converted 'demon' who in turn carries positive and negative elements. The rod or gard is originally a positive symbol. Whoever is touched by it gets life force and happiness. This interpretation of Sinterklaas as a winter saint and giver with a shadow figure or servant can only be found in Northern Europe.
In Dutch children's literature from the nineteenth century onwards, both figures are presented more as opposites, although this also requires nuance. In Schenkman's well-known book Sint Nicolaas and his servant, we see that Sint Nicolaas himself holds the sack in his hand and looks at the children sternly admonishing. The text reads:
Egg, egg that Sint Niklaas is far from tame!
There he puts two boys right in his pocket.
It is fixed wages for work and richly earned.
He does not like to punish children, but is their friend.
O bishop, forgive their deez' some time.
Grant, grant them mercy, they will never do it again!
In Bom's edition of the same book, both Saint and Piet ride a horse across the roof. Even then there was a form of equality. Both figures evolve with the zeitgeist. Pedagogical objections caused the punitive aspect to disappear. Secularization stripped Nicholas of his sanctity, the servant of his dark past. In recent decades, Saint Nicholas has been more of a sweet old grandpa. “There are no naughty children” is repeated year after year. The same applies to Zwarte Piet. He is no longer the menacing helper, but the co-organizer of the party. Often he even gets the leading role, because Saint Nicholas is presented as old, sick and tired.
Reducing Zwarte Piet to an externalization of colonial thinking is therefore a strong simplification, which is not entirely correct even after analysis. The religious interpretation offers more and better guidance. but there are other avenues of thought emerging. In his 1994 book Zwarte Piet, Arno Langeler connects the figure of Zwarte Piet with Cristoforo Moro, a historical figure from an illustrious family who played an ambiguous role during the battle for Cyprus in 1570-71. So not a slave at all, but a powerful man with African roots whose family tree goes back to Roman times.
It is also striking that this duo Sinterklaas and Piet is not known in the Southern European countries such as Spain and Portugal, two originally Catholic countries with a strong colonial past. We do find them in the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, the north of France, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, among others. This indicates that elements from Germanic culture played an important role in the image.'
Is Zwarte Piet then not 'racist'?
Racist refers to the belief that one race is superior to another and the resulting discrimination. Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet are different, but complement each other perfectly.
Moreover, Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet belong in the first place to mythical thinking, not to rational sensory thinking. After all, rational thinking puts an end to the belief in Sinterklaas. Mythical thinking confronts us with another invisible, transcendent reality. The invisible, the night and the other play a role in this because it is precisely the Unheimlichkeit that removes the boundary between reality and unreality. Of course, stories also have a social relevance because they contain, for example, moral values and pedagogical views.
Looking for the roots of both figures, we see how a certain polarization emerges at a certain moment, but a careful analysis of texts and prints reveals more ambiguity.
Until the 1960s, Piet was presented as the subordinate of Saint Nicholas, sometimes with negative features or menacing. Analysis of recent children's literature shows very clearly that Zwarte Piet has evolved into a decidedly positive character, a pivotal figure who carries the party along. A large-scale study in the Netherlands by Gábor Kozijn in 2014 shows that more than 90 percent of adults and children do not experience Zwarte Piet as racist, but do indeed give the figure a positive image of 'fun', funny' and 'smart'. The opinion of Amsterdammers differs in the sense that a large minority there experience the figure as discriminatory. Among the opponents, Surinamese and Ghanaians in particular set the tone. It is striking that they do not find Zwarte Piet discriminatory for themselves, but for others. It is therefore more about a principled attitude that is not based on knowledge of the stories. But confronting the perception and/or the feelings is not an easy thing.
Criticism from a feminist angle also regularly crops up. Feminists find it discriminatory that the world of Sinterklaas is primarily a male affair. That kind of displeasure usually elicits little sympathy. More positive is the plea to be alert, for example, to the stereotypes in the toys; The same goes for racism. Racist representations of Zwarte Piet, such as lazy or stupid, should rightly be banned from children's literature and other cultural products.'
Is the 'soot sweeper' closer to the original than our current Zwarte Piet with the red lips and the black curls?
‘The soot sweeper who only turns black because of his work in the chimney is indeed closer to what we find in Germanic culture, where the chimney plays an important role as a connection to the world of the gods. In the hearth the gifts are left - the last sheaf, the last fruits of the field - to appease the gods.
In the Netherlands, the Zwarte Piet in pageant clothing with black curls, red lips and sometimes earrings and a white collar appears much earlier than in Flanders. Felix Timmermans, for example, draws Zwarte Piet as a poor tramp. However, the exchange of children's books and television programs ensured that the Dutch interpretation of the servant became increasingly dominant, also in Flanders. 'The clothes make the man', applies to Sinterklaas – mitre, staff, red cloak, etc. – and that also increasingly applies to Piet. There is, however, an important caveat here. In recent children's literature, the image of Piet or the Pieten is predominantly positive, whatever suit he wears.'
Happiness in the society is extremely high.
