Tomorrow is Sinterklaas festival in Holland and these are the Zwarte Piets, the helpers who go around giving lots of candy and presents to the kids. My 5-month old loves hanging out with them - I guess it is the colours - or maybe it is love...There has been a lot of debate about the political correctness of the Piets, to be honest - as long as they put smiles on the faces of little children - there must be something right about them....Happy Holidays!
Never heard of this! I am liking this theme already :)
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting concept...is the debate over the issue of slavery at one point or?
yes basically - zwarte means black, the fact that the helper is called black-face is the main grouse against them.
ReplyDeletethey started piets with mult-coloured faces but, the concept so ingrained that it does not appeal to the kids nor their parents ...kind of like making santa coloured...
thanks for sharing it....this is where I first learnt of them...and that was yesterday :)
ReplyDeletehttp://ginniehart.blogspot.com/2007/12/sinterklaas.html
http://ginniehart.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteLike Shaira said - I love this blog for bringing such interesting aspects of our world oto one forum...
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