Why Black

On the other pages you can see what is important in the live of a man in the Middle Ages. Then you can think about why Zwarte Piet is black: Because of the ashes on his face to show remorse for his sins, for his little mistakes. Of course with Santa it's the coal in your stocking. Which you'll find when you were kind of naughty, not so kind this year. Just make your face black with it and show remorse, show that you care, that is what it's there for. That is exactly the same as with Sinterklaas in the Netherlands. Some people in America just forgot...maybe they shouldn't be afraid to show they made little mistakes. 

But why was he called Zwarte Piet and not Zwarte Jan, Zwarte Klaas or Zwarte Gert? 

In the earlier days people played a (playingcards)game that was called "Zwarte Pieten".

If someone got the Jack of Spades on the end he was the Zwarte Piet. Maybe this game was much older without the real playing cards. Anyway it's about that the Jack of Spades is the last card you've got in your hand  

The saying ``Iemand de Zwarte Piet toespelen`` : giving someone the Jack of Spades means making someone the scapegoat. The meaning of Zwarte Piet is:

Zwarte Piet: someone who you can paint black with a cork (ashes not skincolourblack!) because he lost in the game Zwarte Pieten you play with normal playing cards. 

The meaning in the Sinterklaasfeest: someone who helps you to be kind and nice and make no mistakes.

Knight: Knecht: Servant 

Interesting to know Spades stands for noble. And in most languages they don't use the word Boer: Farmer like they say now in Holland but they use the word knecht which stand for an assistent. In a positive way like the first mate. They didn't want two K's here in the game, so they changed it into Boer.

In English they say the Knight. In the past Knecht in Holland was spelled Kneght , later it became Knegt and then Knecht. 

One of the first photographs of Zwarte Piet was with this exact hat. But it now looks more like the one on the card Hearts, easier to make(sew) for real.

So we are not allowed to say the word Knight anymore in the Netherlands. But everyone working for a boss was called a Knecht in the old days. It was a servant. We had a boerenknecht, a slagersknecht, etc. It's strange to change a total language for the reason that a slave was called also a knight because he was working for a boss.

So the word Knight(:Knecht) shouldn't be allowed.  Knights are the same as Knechten. They were servants. It's the same word everywhere around the world. The Netherlands is just part of the whole wide world with the languages looking like each other because people were meeting other people in other countries or infading like Romans, or Spanish, or French, etc.  In the Netherlands there were so many different countries being here. 

Showing remorse. Being a good person. 

For not everyone would be walking around on the streets with a rod, a sackcloth and ashes on his face, everything he needed to do penance with, and even sometimes a penancechain,  people had the idea to give all these attributes to one figure. He was represented with this and was called the Zwarte Piet. He became the one who presented everything about showing remorse for sins.

So he was just a Dutchman who wanted to show what is the way to show remorse for your sins. What was the way to take care that you would become a better person.

The black face of Zwarte Piet is there for a very good reason and is in no way to replace for a purple, red of orange face because then our whole culture, history and everything Zwarte Piet stands for will be washed away. He is giving children and adults a change to be good and nice and help them with that.

Colourful tights. 

What is possible anyway is walking around more in colourful tights. When you buy Zwarte Piet clothes it's mostly shown with colourful tights. And it isn't black, but can have a colour like red, yellow, green. Just like on the old pictures of Zwarte Piet and also noblemen and paintings of them. White is also often used for tights.

Zwarte Piet was eventually nothing more then a white Dutchman en he didn't put ashes on his legs. That would be very awkward and more difficult. 

And a little thing to think about: Why do black people paint their face white when Mandela died? Is this racism? I don't think so.

Sometimes there are whole groups of people with whitecoloured faces together. I don't understand these habits. And I don't think it is something I should know. Just letting people have their habbits and their culture. And why is a Geisha painted white? I wouldn't dare to call it racism because I don't know her background, her history....

En I surely wouldn't protest against something like this all out of respect for another man's culture. Being in a country which is taking good care of other people.

These are all very old habbits, just exactly like making your face black to show remorse for your mistakes. And often before this these habbits were used.

And painting someone who is pictured like a 500 year old saint/ghost like Sinterklaas white......Is that so strange? He is white because he's not a real living human being. When I was 5 years old Sinterklaas was at least 500 years.......I didn't find it strange then that he was so White.......a saint of 500 years old. 

In Dutch we say blank to a white person..........

Through the Chimney

Why the story with the chimney is made up? Because in the earlier days people didn't have the freedom to celebrate their celebrations like nowadays? People didn't have freedom of religion, speech, etc. in the past in Holland.

So people couldn't always celebrate what they wanted. They celebrated this festival indoors and yes then someone will turn extra black because of going through the chimney (also a Spanish man).

It was because of religion it was indoors:

- One group of the same religion didn't want to show saints like Sinterklaas/Sint Nicolaas, St. Nic.

- The other group of the same religion wanted to share these figures and what they stood for.

In Holland where a lot of religious statues broken down those days because of that. If Zwarte Piet wouldn't be allowed anymore we would actually go back to the Middle Ages and that would be like having no freedom of speech. Do people want that? Do all the refugees want that?

Nowadays the Sinterklaasfeest is a mix of everything, all positive, celebrated by everyone.