Six to Eight Black Men...

[Firmus]

RR, since you are the beauty from the Netherlands, can you please verify this?

6 to 8 Black men by D. Sedaris - YouTube

[RedRoses]

ROFL! That's really great humor!
Yep, that's our Sinterklaas. Images look authentic to me.

And somebody did his research quite well; got all the facts. Though from my perception; Sinterklaas travels with a lot more black men than 6-8. So I don't know where that came from.

Funny, on December 4th I wrote an e-mail to a friend explaining what Sinterklaas is. I guess I could have just used that video

"it's almost Sinterklaas here. Which means I've been treating myself to Pepernoten and marzepan and chocolat letters, jeeeeh! It's a bit like our version of Santa Claus. Though Sinterklaas is skinny and dressed like a bishop. He comes with a steamer from Spain to the Netherlands each year in November. The kids have been putting their shoes in front of the heater every night for the past few weeks, receiving little gifts or candy. He rides a white horse over the roofs at night, instead of a carriage through the sky. And he has "Pieten", instead of elfs to help him deliver all the gifts to the little kids. On pakjesavond (present-night), which is tomorrow, there will be a burlap bag filled with presents brought to each house. It's always fun how parents and neighbors make a deal and trick the kids. The Pieten are the controversial bit of the story, since these are white people painted black all with the first name "Piet" (a common Dutch name) and it probably originally stems from slaves. We've heard it's actually forbidden to celebrate it in Canada, because they consider it racist. Perhaps the celebration hasn't evolved like it did with us. We more than often tell the children the skin became black because they go through chimneys delivering presents all the time (which is originally also part of the legend). So children usually know the difference between black people and pieten, unless they're really young toddlers. And the head-master Piet is often depicted as even more clever than Sinterklaas nowadays. Because Sinterklaas is very old and needs help remembering all the stuff. In the old days, when my mom was little in the '50's, the Pieten would actually scare little children on purpose and rattle with chains and hit in the air with bundles of sticks, threatening to take the kids in a bag back to Spain. Nowadays they're all friendly."

And after some talk over the legend of Santa Claus, I made an overview of the history of it's legend. Such subjects just intrigue me and I could keep on going A copy pasted below, for those interested:

St Nicolaas was a real bishop of the town Myra and because he was so good to children (and I hope this was really in a good way, pardon my sarcasm ) they made him patron saint of children. The myth of Santa Claus most likely was brought to the US by Dutch men in 1611, when they founded New Amsterdam. When the city was sold a few decades later, Saint Nicolaas remained patron saint of New York. In the first version of a history of New York by Irving, St A Claus (which is the phonetics of Sint-er-Klaas) was described like we know him; on his horse going through the city giving gifts. In the 1820's a new image was set for St Nick as he was depicted as this jolly man in "the night before christmas" by Clement Moore and he was the one describing the reindeers pulling the sled. In 1860 Thomas Nast depicted the more typical Santa as we now know him in Harper's Magazine. In 1925 newspapers announced Santa couldn't be on the North Pool, since the reindeers don't live there. So he lived in Scandinavia from then on. Which quite fit the picture of what was believed by kids in Scandinavia at the time (and even till this day). In Scandinavia they call him Jultomte; he is a little gnome in a red hat and coat who rides in a sled pulled by Julbocker, the goats of the Viking god Thor, and carries a large bag filled with presents. Though don't be fooled; when we dig a little deeper; Jultomte is a legend that also didn't emerge until the 1840's in Scandinavia

Seems like the versions of St Nicolaas like they are celebrated in the Netherlands and were celebrated in Germany are the oldest tales known of this man in red. On another aspect; it is funny that the Christmas-child was originally a German custom. A little girl dressed in white on a donkey who brought gifts to the children. In return, people put a little crib with hay and carrots in the stable for the donkey. And then off course there's the celebration of the returning of light, midwinter-fest, which has been celebrated for thousands of years in Europe. Which is why we still decorate trees with fake fruit. Probably it all got entwined into the celebration we have today: St Nicolaas, the child, the gnomes, the midwinter-fest and off course: baby Jesus. Of which we're quite sure the latter was injected into the festivities deliberately. As the church made it their goal to re-institute the existing holidays and festivities by making them have Christian value. Which was the most easy way, instead of forbidding celebrations the people loved so much.

[dlb]

Very amusing. A wry, supposedly ignorant, American view of the Dutch St. Nicholas tradition. Sometimes it seems that I live in a separate reality and my personal experiences seem to be absolutely singular. Anyway, I remember being in second grade in a backward small city with a not very progressive school systen in North Carolina in the 1960s and we learned about the Dutch version of St. Nicholas and other versions of kindly older folk who bring presents to children around the Christmas season. I always asssumed this was general knowledge. Again I seem to live a separate reality, perhaps a parallel dimension. When I was a child the more episcopal looking St. Nicholas image was certainly not as common as the Santa Claus one. However, it did show up in Christmas decorations though it seemed to be on the way out.

What Red Roses writes about the evolution of Santa Claus in America is correct. Washington Irving revived Sinter Klaas as part of a general retrieval of Knickerbocker contributions to New York culture. Clement C. Moore made him a "jolly old elf" whose "little round belly,
that shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly" in his narrative poem A Visit from St. Nicholas or as most know it Twas the Night Before Christmas. This image was further elaborated by Thomas Nast who also gave us Uncle Sam. It wasn't until the 20th century that the Coca Cola company´s advertising department gave us the finished product of how we Americans imagine Santa Claus.

What I remember learning about the Dutch St. Nicholas was that there was one black helper, not six to eight, - who was actually supposed to be a Moor---from Spain of course. But, now I am about to digress into a pontification on the race and color of Moors. Speaking of Spain a few years ago I happened to be in Spain the night of january 5th and got to watch the Three Kings Parade in Seville. In Spain the night before Epiphany is when the Three Kings or Wise Men, known locally as los reyes magos bring candy and toys to good children. It was a very magical pageant as I imagine the Dutch St. Nicholas festival to be.

edit: The relationship with Thor is actually new info to me, I think I learned of it only this past Yule season. Red Roses mentions St. Nick riding one of Thor's goat. Perhaps Clement C. Moore was aware of this connection 190 years ago as ther is a reindeer named Donner who is naturally accompanied by Blitzen. For those who don't know, Blitzen = lightening and Donner = thunder. Donner is also another name of Thor. Thursday (Thor's day) in German is Donnerstag and in Dutch Donderdag.

[Firmus]

The one Santa Claus variant I've heard of when I was a kid was that in Hawaii Santa rides in on a surf board. I think it's funny how each culture can look at the others version and be like "pfft! That's dumb as hell!" when really all of them are asinine in their own ways.

[dlb]

Shark Boy?