Everyone knows that Santa lives in the North Pole with his little elves and travels in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. But in Belgium they believe Saint Niklaus is from Spain and arrives in a steamboat manned by black slaves all called "Zwarte Pete" (Black Pete). Children fear the Zwarte Petes as they are the enforcers of the "naughty or nice" policy that the jolly bearded guy subscribes to. Kids run the risk of a severe thrashing from Zwarte Pete if they appear in the naughty section of St. Niklaus’ twice-checked list…
Extremely naughty children are threatened by parents/teachers with the prospect of being snatched by Zwarte Pete, bundled into a sack, and taken to Spain where they’d be forced to make toys for the good children until the following Christmas. Needless to say, Belgian boys and girls grow up fearing black faces. Yet it’s not surprising the country has such a complex about colour considering the crazy shit they pulled in colonial Africa.
Zwarte Pete is typically portrayed by a white person with a blacked-out faces (actual black people aren’t too impressed by the whole myth, weirdly).
DWID HELLION
Reader Comments
November 30th, 2006
1:07 pm
David Sedaris did a piece on this whole thing a few years ago.
It might have been for the netherlands specifically, but apparently, St Nick is the ex-arch bishop of turkey, and the black guys were once his “slaves,” but now are actually his “friends.”
November 30th, 2006
1:09 pm
you think that’s funny, you should see cagatio in the catalan country, there’s a dwarf who when you beat him with a stick, literally shits the presents.
see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTXYLwOrgyc
November 30th, 2006
3:28 pm
Black people actually do hate me in the Netherlands: http://www.waterkant.net/suriname/forum/viewtopic.php?id=245&action=new
November 30th, 2006
4:43 pm
fuck you, santa is finnish, everybody knows that
November 30th, 2006
9:36 pm
if this is true it makes me soooo happy.
that picture is clearly photoshopped btw.
November 30th, 2006
9:42 pm
Schwarze Peter was one of the redeeming things about taking German, other than getting my teacher to admit that the class motto is actually Arbeit Macht Frei.
But really, Christmas needs more beatings with fairly thick twigs and kidnappings…
December 1st, 2006
4:28 am
actually, in finland the gift bringer used to be a child devouring boar but now it’s just the jolly fat man like everywhere else BOOOOOORING.
December 1st, 2006
12:45 pm
Check here for the whole Sinter/Santa story folks!
http://www.lone-star.net/mall/main-areas/santafaq.htm
December 1st, 2006
1:28 pm
i went finland last year. santa lives there. i saw 3
December 5th, 2006
10:01 am
Actually Black Pete originates from the medieval church plays, that were held to educate the masses about religion. At first he represented the devil, who in the end of many plays became subdued by a saint. The black paint was used to make the face unrecognizable (black is just the cheapest and best way to do that) and make the actor look scarier.
Later the tradition mixed with two or three other traditions to result in what now is Sinterklaas.
In the 50’s Sinterklaas and his Petes were a lot more strict then they are now, I remember my father telling me he actually got charcoal as a present once after he had been naughty!
Children love both Sinterklaas as well as his Petes, although they might be just a bit more carefull about naughty antics around this time of year…
Most children are smart enough to see the difference between an ordinary black person and a Black Pete.
It is not only celebrated in Belgium, but also in the Netherlands and parts of Germany and Switzerland. It’s one of my favorite times of the year ^_^