Zwarte Piet Totally Explained

Everything about Zwarte Piet totally explained

In the folklore and legends of the Netherlands and Flanders, Zwarte Piet (meaning Black Pete) is a companion of Saint Nicholas (Dutch: Sinterklaas) whose yearly feast in the Netherlands is (usually on the evening of) 5 December(Sinterklaas-avond, that's St. Nicolas Eve) and 6 December in Flanders, when they distribute presents to all good children.
Zwarte Piet has counterparts in the folklore of other western cultures: these companions of Saint Nicholas are known by many names, among them: Rumpelklas, Buzebergt and Hans Muff; they also include the Elves aiding Santa Claus, a modern American composite of the Saint Nicholas and Father Christmas.
The character of Zwarte Piet appears only in the weeks before Saint Nicholas's feast, first when the saint is welcomed with a parade as he arrives in the country (in the Netherlands by steam boat, from Spain), and is mainly targeted at children, who come to meet the saint as he visits stores, schools etc. He is sometimes associated with Knecht Ruprecht, but in the Low Countries the tradition hasn't merged with Christmas. Zwarte Piet was known for stealing childrens money, while Santa left presents for the children.

Appearance

At first Zwarte Piet was depicted as a regular foreigner from southern Europe, as envisioned in that time, but within half a century Zwarte Piet inherited many of the classic darky icons, contemporaneous with the spread of darky iconography. Blackfaced, googly-eyed, red-lipped Zwarte Piet dolls, die cuts and displays adorn store windows alongside brightly packaged and displayed, holiday merchandise.
Due to its nature as a legend and the increased number of Pieten, Zwarte Piet is represented in many different ways with many different specialties, in a way comparable to Smurfs. Some examples include a wayguide Piet, a cooking Piet, a poem Piet and an acrobatic Piet.

History

1845: Jan Schenkman writes Saint Nicholas and his Servant; Piet is described in this book as a servant and as black, and a slave and is depicted as a dark man wearing Asian-style clothes. Steamboat travel becomes part of the mythos from this point. In the 1850 version of Schenkman's book, they're depicted looking much as they do today. The servant gets his African origin but still has no standard name. In later editions Piet was shown in the page costume, the book stayed (with some changes) in print until 1950 and can be seen as the foundation of the current celebration, even though it did use a lot of older ideas and customs.

Barring a very rare exception the relation between St. Nicholas and Pete has always been described as one between employer and employed, between boss and worker, never between owner and slave.

1891: A book appears which names the servant Pieter, although there were several books giving him other names, and in live appearances the name and looks still varied considerably.

In the early 20th century first the Civilized Standard Celebration for children with Zwarte Piet as the standard personal servant of the saint spread throughout the country. In the 1930s urban adults become more involved too and the arrival of Saint Nicholas and Zwarte Piet are staged, which more or less explains the shift from the 6th to the 5th of December, as the adults would celebrate on the eve of the saint's day.

1945: The Second World War disrupted the tradition. After the war ended, it was difficult to stage the arrival of Saint Nicholas and Piet. However, with the much-needed assistance of the Canadian Army, four Jeeps were used. Although the idea of having more than one Saint Nicholas was attractive to the helpful Canadian soldiers, that would be an impossible break with the tradition, so instead of multiplying Saint Nicholas, his servants were multiplied. The paradigm shift opened possibilities to create (for TV and such) lots of different characters being "Zwarte Piet" at the same time.

Origin and evolution

According to myths current before the beginning of the 19th century, Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas) operated by himself or in the companionship of a devil. (Having triumphed over evil, it was said that on Saint Nicholas Eve, the devil was shackled and made his slave.) A devil as a helper of the Saint can also still be found in Austrian Saint Nicholas tradition.
   Some sources indicate that in Germanic Europe, Zwarte Piet originally was such an enslaved devil forced to assist his captor, but the character emerged in the 19th century within the Netherlands as a companion of Saint Nicholas resembling a Moor; Saint Nicholas is said to come from Spain.
   The introduction of this new Zwarte Piet was paired with a change in the attitude of the Sinterklaas character that was often shown as being quite rough against bad children himself and thought unbefitting of a Bishop by teachers and priests. Soon after the introduction of Zwarte Piet as Sinterklaas' helper, both characters adapted to a softer character.
   Until the second half of the 20th century, Saint Nicholas' helper wasn't too bright, in line with the old colonial traditions. Once immigration started from the former colonised countries Zwarte Piet became a more respected assistant of Saint Nicholas.
   According to the more modern Saint Nicholas legend, Zwarte Piet is a servant who accompanies Saint Nicholas on his holiday travels. In some versions, it's alleged that Saint Nicholas once liberated a young slave named Peter, who decided to serve Nicholas (as a free servant) rather than enjoy liberty alone. Zwarte Piet is today commonly depicted as a black man in the colorful pantaloons, feathered cap and ruffles of a Renaissance European page, a tradition based on a single illustration in a book published in 1850.
   Zwarte Piet is often portrayed as a mischievous or even mean character. Parents used to tell their children that if they've been good, Zwarte Piet will bring them gifts and sweets, but if they've been bad, Piet will scoop them up, stuff them in his huge dufflebag and spirit them away to Spain. Though this is increasingly uncommon nowadays, he can still carry some type of whip or scourge, especially a birch, which could be used for birching or in modern words, to chastise children who have been too naughty to deserve presents. The character is believed to have been derived from pagan traditions of evil spirits. Also told for decades is a story that the Zwarte Pieten are black because of chimney soot and/or in mockery of the darker Spanish occupiers of the Low Countries in centuries past.
   The traditions of the Saint Nicholas feast are in part at least of medieval origin, if not much older. St. Nicholas himself, as described in the Dutch tradition shows some similarities to Wuotan/Odin, which suggests that the duo have a pre-Christian origin. Possible precursors to Zwarte Piet can be found in Odin's ravens Hugin and Munin.

Current affairs

The character of Zwarte Piet is increasingly controversial in its modern interpretation, which is often similar to blackface and can raise social concerns similar to those which have made blackface a taboo its American birthplace since the mid-20th century. During recent years the role of Zwarte Piet has become part of a recurring debate in the Netherlands. To this day, holiday revellers in the Netherlands blacken their faces, wear afro wigs and bright red lipstick, and walk the streets throwing candy to passers-by. As at Carnival, some of the actors behave dim-wittedly, or like buffoons, and/or speak mangled Dutch as embodiments of Zwarte Piet.
   Accepted in the past without controversy in a once largely ethnically homogeneous nation, today Zwarte Piet is controversial and greeted with mixed reactions. Many see him as a cherished tradition and look forward to his annual appearance. Others detest him— for example, some of the country's people of color. The lyrics of traditional Sinterklaas songs and some parents warn that Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet will leave well-behaved children presents, but punish those who have been naughty. They will kidnap bad children and carry these children off in a sack to their homeland of Spain, where, legend has it, Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet dwell out of season. Consequently, while many Dutch children love Zwarte Piet and are fascinated by him, some are fearful of encounters with Zwarte Piet impersonators.
   The origin and appearance of Zwarte Piet is seen by some today as a form of racism that promotes a negative stereotype of dark-skinned people as evil, stupid, emasculated or foolish. These same behaviour and physical characteristics are shared by the typical character in the condemned early 20th Century American tradition blackface, even though many European countries don't have a high level of exposure to the tradition. Writing in Essence magazine of her experiences living in the Netherlands, expatriate African American Pamela Armstrong-De Vreeze observed that the "annual pageant introduces a troubling minstrel-show stereotype to young Dutch children, whose exposure to Blacks is often limited to the Zwarte Piet character. As a result, many can't tell the difference between a made-up Zwarte Piet and a person of African descent." Zwarte Piet's role as the subservient character in the story of Saint Nicholas is particularly sensitive considering the history of the Dutch West India Company in the 17th century.
Foreign tourists, particularly Americans, are often bewildered and mortified. As a result of the allegations of racism, some of the Dutch have tried replacing Zwarte Piet's blackface makeup with face paint in alternative colors such as green or purple. This practice, however, hasn't caught on. Since the last decade of the 20th century there have been several attempts to introduce a new kind of Zwarte Piet to the Dutch population. These Zwarte Pieten have replaced the traditional black make-up for all sorts of colours and have been introduced several times in an effort to make Zwarte Piet acceptable to all inhabitants and to create a character that's politically correct. These multi-colored Pieten are unpopular amongst the Dutch population and are not catching on. In 2006 the NPS replaced the black Pieten by these rainbow-coloured Pieten, but in 2007 they reverted to the traditional all-black Pieten.
   As a result of Zwarte Piet's unchanged appearance, often once a year in the Netherlands, the debate over the harmlessness, or racism, of Zwarte Piet resurfaces—along with the usual smiling golliwog dolls; strolling Zwarte Pieten tossing sweets to eager children and other passersby; and the sometimes startling storefront-darky images.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Zwarte Piet'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://zwarte_piet.totallyexplained.com">Zwarte Piet Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.