CHRISTMAS, all of it ..

[realgrimm]

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[realgrimm]

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[size=150]Sinterklaas doesn't have some exotic home like the North Pole. He just lives in Spain. And he doesn't come to the Netherlands on a flying sleigh. He charters a steamboat.Nobody's entirely sure why Sinterklaas, who's based on the Turkish Saint Nicholas, became Spanish, but they're fairly sure it has to do with a lot of people being confused about everything. Originally, Sinterklaas was supposed to be Dutch—until someone wrote a song about him going to Spain to get oranges. The songwriter didn't really understand what oranges were, so he called them "orange-colored apples." His audience just got more confused and didn't realize that Sinterklaas was just supposed to be visiting Spain. Instead, it soon became his home. Either way, today he shows up on a boat. All the kids eagerly wait to see him and his black slaves pull up to the coast of Amsterdam. Then they follow him as he rides his horse through the town, making his slaves throw cookies at small children.

[realgrimm]

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[size=150]On December 5, the children get ready for the magical moment when Sinterklaas and his Black Petes will sneak into their homes and leave them presents. And so, waiting for his arrival, they leave their shoes by the fireplace so that he has a place to put his little gifts.The holiday is more about giving than receiving, and so the children leave little gifts for Sinterklaas and his friends. For Sinterklaas, they will leave coffee and poetry. For his horse, they will leave hay and carrots. And for Black Pete, they will leave a couple of bottles of beer.As it turns out, Black Pete is a hard-drinking man. It's such a big part of his character that there are several seasonal "Black Pete" beers on the market in the Netherlands, all dark ales that often show a swarthy-looking man in blackface getting hammered out of his mind.

[Anonymous]

My husband is Dutch..



I am familiar with Sinter Klaas and Black Peter.

[realgrimm]

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[size=150]Not every child gets presents on Sinterklaas Day. If children have been bad, parents will leave the kids little notes from Sinterklaas warning them that they need to clean up their act—or else. Come December 5, if that child doesn't start acting right, he'll get something a lot worse than a lump of coal.When climbing into kids' homes, the Black Petes bring burlap sacks and broom handles. Their job is to track down any misbehaving children, throw them in the sack, beat them with the broom handle, and then drag them off to Spain. What happens there, no one knows for sure. But the children never return.Of course, parents never actually have their children beaten and shipped to Spain, but they can still leave kids with "bad presents." If a child misbehaves, the parents can leave a broom handle in their child's shoe and give him a firsthand glimpse of the fate he narrowly avoided—as long as the adults are comfortable with parenting through psychological terror.

[realgrimm]

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[realgrimm]

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[realgrimm]

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[realgrimm]

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[size=150]As strange as Sinterklaas Day is in the Netherlands, it's a lot weirder in Luxembourg. There, people also receive visits from Sinterklaas, but he doesn't bring the Black Petes to Luxembourg. Instead, Sinterklaas brings Houseker—and he's terrifying.Rather than dressing in bright, fun colors like the Black Petes, Houseker dresses in torn black robes that make him look like a dying beggar or the image of death itself. And instead of bringing cookies and treats for the good kids to eat, he just brings a stick and a temper.His entire role is beating children. Houseker doesn't give any gifts or march in any parade—he just beats kids with a stick. That's his whole thing. The best a child in Luxembourg can hope for is that Houseker will leave him alone.

[Anonymous]

A growing number of  people in the Netherlands feel Zwarte Piet is offensive and it's time to lose the traditional character.

[Bricktop]

[Anonymous]

[Bricktop]

I'm sure receiving a bottle of toilet deodorant will go down well with the whole family.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure receiving a bottle of toilet deodorant will go down well with the whole family.

That's what I was thinking about.

[Blazor]

Heh, Santa's Elves  



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