I'm sitting in the late (3:30pm) afternoon sunshine, squinting as I write. Yes, I am still in the Netherlands, but we have been granted a reprieve and the sun is blazing today. The reason it's in my eyes is because we are far enough north at 53 degrees that the sun has a pretty flat trajectory across the sky. In another hour, it will have set and a winter's night set in. It reminds me of when I was growing up in British Columbia, Canada - during the week, my brothers and I would leave the house for school in the dark and by the time we were home again, in the afternoon, it was dark again. I only ever saw my horse and our beautiful surroundings by daylight on the weekends during the mid-winter time. However, these are wonderful memories because it also marked the time approaching for the winter holidays, skiiing, and lots of snow. I also knew that when I went back to school after Christmas, the days would be just a teensy bit longer and summer was on its way! I don't have quite the same situation here, since we live on the North Sea, we rarely get snow, and I find that I really am missing the sunshine by the time spring and summer arrive. The Dutch call this the "Winter Dip" and since they all know what this means, I can tell it's a real issue here. My solution is to have the blankets handy to curl up with, I light votive candles in warm-coloured glass holders and when the sun is out, I ENJOY it! Keeping up with a running routine really helps my frame of mind too.
This past Friday, 5 December, saw a winter tradition that the Dutch are very fond of. Historically, Dutch people didn't celebrate Christmas as they had this feast instead, the feast of SinterKlaas. This does not translate to Santa Claus, because this is a unique individual. "Sint" as he is fondly referred to, was the patron saint of Turkey and now is rumoured to spend most of the year in Spain (which really does sound more welcoming than the North Pole to be honest, but lacks a certain mystery all the same). In about mid-November, he arrives, by boat, to the Netherlands. He is accompanied, and this is the part that many expats have difficulty with, by several Zwarte Piets. This translates as "Black Pete" and they are historically Moors, Sint having come from Spain. The unfortunate thing now, however, is that in the 60's or so, the Dutch realized that this didn't work too well in modern-world view, so instead of Piet being a Moor, he is now only black because he came down the chimney before Sint (I should mention that Sint is dressed in long, white robes, and wears a pope-like mitre on his head. He also has a long white beard and rides a white horse, called Amerigo). As a result, there is now perceived to be no problem with the fact that Dutch people all over the country dress up in black face, with red lips, a black wig and a colourful costume (that somehow did not get sullied coming down the chimney...). At any rate, these are Sint's helpers and run around with gunny sacks filled with sweets for the children. Again, in prior times, children were told the sacks held switches and if they didn't behave, Piet would beat them, stuff them in the sack, and take them back to Spain! Small wonder we've talked to a few people here that grew up having a distrust of any black person they saw until they were old enough to work through the trauma.
On to the rest of the tradition. Sint is given a list of children and what they've been up to before showing up at their homes to hand out gifts. Associated with this day are letters made of chocolate that are given out to correspond with one's first name. Clever poems are written about family members or friends, usually with a sly and humourous twist, and kruidnoten and peppernoten (both a gingerbready flavoured small cookie) are baked. Children put out one of their shoes for Sint to fill with gifts and next to these, is hay and maybe an apple or carrot for Sint's horse. The weeks leading up to 5 December therefore are full of yummy treats and strange sights in the streets and give a definite atmosphere of, "We're not in Kansas anymore". As an addendum to the somewhat pejorative story about Zwarte Piet, our friend Hans told us on Friday night that in the 1800s the story about the Piets was changed by a schoolteacher trying to instill discipline in his classroom (hence the Piets being seen since then as I mentioned above). In fact, prior to this teacher, the legend had it that Sint had liberated the Piets from slavery by buying their freedom and this was why they chose to accompany him. In all, a better story to tell the children, certainly in modern times, than some malarkey about being sooty from the chimney which simply implies they are only smudged white people!
Since Mike and I don't have kids - the cats don't count in this instance, we joined three other childless friends for a food and movie night in The Hague. Hans (Dutch) hosted, Bill (British), Lisa (Italian / American), and Mike and I ate ourselves silly, and stayed up til the early hours watching movies. In the spirit of Sinterklaas, we were to bring our movie choice wrapped so it was secret, and have food relating to the day. Mike brought tapas (Spain), Bill the chocolate letters, Hans had paella, Lisa was creative and brought frozen "Piet-za" as a nod to her Italian upbringing and a nice play on Zwarte Piet's name. I made split pea soup for a Dutch contribution. All in all, it was a great evening, until Mike and I hopped on our bikes for the 40 minute ride home and it was not only 3:00am, but raining quite hard. Our bed feels so good to get into at times like this!!
The sun is now gone, although it's still light, but the photo at the top of this post, courtesy of my computer, shows me squinting at the start of the email.
This past Friday, 5 December, saw a winter tradition that the Dutch are very fond of. Historically, Dutch people didn't celebrate Christmas as they had this feast instead, the feast of SinterKlaas. This does not translate to Santa Claus, because this is a unique individual. "Sint" as he is fondly referred to, was the patron saint of Turkey and now is rumoured to spend most of the year in Spain (which really does sound more welcoming than the North Pole to be honest, but lacks a certain mystery all the same). In about mid-November, he arrives, by boat, to the Netherlands. He is accompanied, and this is the part that many expats have difficulty with, by several Zwarte Piets. This translates as "Black Pete" and they are historically Moors, Sint having come from Spain. The unfortunate thing now, however, is that in the 60's or so, the Dutch realized that this didn't work too well in modern-world view, so instead of Piet being a Moor, he is now only black because he came down the chimney before Sint (I should mention that Sint is dressed in long, white robes, and wears a pope-like mitre on his head. He also has a long white beard and rides a white horse, called Amerigo). As a result, there is now perceived to be no problem with the fact that Dutch people all over the country dress up in black face, with red lips, a black wig and a colourful costume (that somehow did not get sullied coming down the chimney...). At any rate, these are Sint's helpers and run around with gunny sacks filled with sweets for the children. Again, in prior times, children were told the sacks held switches and if they didn't behave, Piet would beat them, stuff them in the sack, and take them back to Spain! Small wonder we've talked to a few people here that grew up having a distrust of any black person they saw until they were old enough to work through the trauma.
On to the rest of the tradition. Sint is given a list of children and what they've been up to before showing up at their homes to hand out gifts. Associated with this day are letters made of chocolate that are given out to correspond with one's first name. Clever poems are written about family members or friends, usually with a sly and humourous twist, and kruidnoten and peppernoten (both a gingerbready flavoured small cookie) are baked. Children put out one of their shoes for Sint to fill with gifts and next to these, is hay and maybe an apple or carrot for Sint's horse. The weeks leading up to 5 December therefore are full of yummy treats and strange sights in the streets and give a definite atmosphere of, "We're not in Kansas anymore". As an addendum to the somewhat pejorative story about Zwarte Piet, our friend Hans told us on Friday night that in the 1800s the story about the Piets was changed by a schoolteacher trying to instill discipline in his classroom (hence the Piets being seen since then as I mentioned above). In fact, prior to this teacher, the legend had it that Sint had liberated the Piets from slavery by buying their freedom and this was why they chose to accompany him. In all, a better story to tell the children, certainly in modern times, than some malarkey about being sooty from the chimney which simply implies they are only smudged white people!
Since Mike and I don't have kids - the cats don't count in this instance, we joined three other childless friends for a food and movie night in The Hague. Hans (Dutch) hosted, Bill (British), Lisa (Italian / American), and Mike and I ate ourselves silly, and stayed up til the early hours watching movies. In the spirit of Sinterklaas, we were to bring our movie choice wrapped so it was secret, and have food relating to the day. Mike brought tapas (Spain), Bill the chocolate letters, Hans had paella, Lisa was creative and brought frozen "Piet-za" as a nod to her Italian upbringing and a nice play on Zwarte Piet's name. I made split pea soup for a Dutch contribution. All in all, it was a great evening, until Mike and I hopped on our bikes for the 40 minute ride home and it was not only 3:00am, but raining quite hard. Our bed feels so good to get into at times like this!!
The sun is now gone, although it's still light, but the photo at the top of this post, courtesy of my computer, shows me squinting at the start of the email.
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