Sinterklaas Day

The start of the holiday season began this weekend in the Netherlands and Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa Claus, made his annual trek through the streets and canals of Amsterdam (more about Sinterklaas and and his helper Zwarte Piet on my side blog).

I don't know how many of you saw the Daily Show this week, but there was a segment about white people dressing up in blackface and how there's just no excuse for it anymore. As the commentator, Larry Willmore said, "here's when blackface is okay: when you have a black face!"

Yet every year, thousands of Dutch children and adults dress up in blackface on the third weekend in November as part of the Sinterklaas holiday. Dutch people claim Zwarte Piet is black because he fell down a chimney and that it's not racist at all - but of course most of the expats don't buy this.

I took a few pictures so you could get some idea of how big of a deal this holiday is to Dutch people. I honestly wish I could have sent these to the Daily Show before their segment (they ran it the week before so of course this wouldn't have been possible), because I'm amazed at how unknown this holiday is throughout the world.

These are all white people:







A bit shocking, right?

- Krista