Christmas Preparations 2013

[lumberjim]

peanut butter jelly time

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

peanut butter jelly time

Where's the baseball bat?

[Lamplighter]

According to some, Christmas is under attack
... now even in The Netherlands via the United Nations

I didn't know about "Black Pete" until today's article in the NY Times.
And what first caught my eye was this faux-logic and mis-direction of
"Party of Freedom" vs "must not be tampered with" in one sentence:

Such traditions are even more important today, given the view that, in order to safeguard
the Dutch national identity, homegrown culture and folklore must not be tampered with
— a view expressed primarily, though not exclusively, by the extreme right wing Party for Freedom, run by Geert Wilders.

But then, reading further into the article, I found the traditions interesting... with other incongruities.

Here are a few paragraphs about current events there...


NY Times
ARNON GRUNBERG
December 4, 2013

Why the Dutch Love Black Pete

Sinterklaas arrives from Spain by steamboat in late November, travels farther on horseback,
climbs onto roofs and on Dec. 5, known as “Pakjesavond,” drops presents through the chimney
with the help of the Black Petes, a crew of dark-skinned helpers wearing large earrings
who cavort and entertain and, as Dutch parents often tell their children, owe their blackness to chimney soot.

Black Pete and Sinterklaas also conspire to form a punitive team.
In the traditional holiday songs, Sinterklaas brings gifts for good boys and girls;
naughty children get a spanking with Black Pete’s bundle of twigs<snip>

But just as the defense of traditions has grown stronger, so has the criticism that
Black Pete is a racist holdover from the Netherlands’s colonial past.
In January the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights sent a letter to the Dutch government
stating that Black Pete perpetuated the image of people of African descent
as second-class citizens and constituted a “living trace of past slavery.”<snip>

Emotions were running so high that a popular singer, Anouk, who is white and
had called for the abolition of Black Pete, received numerous insults and threats via social media.
A plan for a Sinterklaas parade with a proposed compromise, Green Petes,
had to be canceled after threats were made against its planners.

During the triumphal entry of St. Nicholas into the Netherlands this year,
a national happening whereby a sort of street theater is performed on the children’s behalf,
the Black Petes were in attendance once again, albeit this time with less ostentatious golden earrings.
For security’s sake, the saint himself was accompanied by armed Petes in bulletproof vests.
<snip>

[xoxoxoBruce]

I guess you weren't around when a Cellar member from Holland was filling us in on Krampus, Sinterklaas, Zwarte Piet, and some other European holiday traditions.