OT - Sinterklaas und der Zwarte Pieten
 

What does a former Bishop from Turkey via a boat from Spain a bunch of Black Pete's, kids and the Low Countries have in common? Sinterklaasavond, on December 5th! I had never heard this story before until this morning and wanted to pass it along.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/...h99We/610x.jpg
From: http://cache.daylife.com/

Sinterklass or St. Nicholas is a variant of the USA Santa all be it with differences. The Dutch version is thin, esthetic and rides a white horse. He lives in sunny Spain and not the North Pole because it is warmer, duh. He commutes to Holland, Belgium and a bunch of other countries via boat from home along with his helpers, the Black Petes.

http://dutchimport.files.wordpress.c..._phpu49bcr.jpg
Inbound from Espana
From: http://dutchimport.files.wordpress.com/

The Black Petes carry chimney sweeps, sticks and bags of candy. Depending on how the child is doing, they either get the candy or reportedly a whopping with the sticks or even tossed in the bag for the return trip to Spain. They are dressed like Italian chimney sweeps I understand given that they jump down flues to see if the kids have left carrots in the wooden shoes, hay and water for Sinterklass's horse. If so they leave candy if not ... no idea, probably not good though.

More about this holiday and evolution over the years, bizarre out takes to WWII airdrops, racism, capital punishment and prostitution? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

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Another variant of St. Nick on a goat?
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_C...erican_culture