National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #27

Over on the continent, there is a tradition surrounding St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors and children. In the Netherlands, the Bishop of Myra (modern day Smyrna in Turkey) arrives by steamboat from Spain, riding a white charger and accompanied by black-faced serfs, also known as Black Peters. They scatter candy and presents. St Nicholas is rumoured to ride the apexes of the roofs, dropping presents down chimneys. In turn, he collects a carrot for the horse, that children leave out in their shoe, set by the fireplace. Black Peter reputedly descends the chimney to leave the present and collect the carrot. Children who have been bad are warned that they will be carried back to Spain and given the rod, as carried by Black Peter. 

The historical background is slightly warped; as I wrote, St Nicholas lived and died in Myra. After his death, and upon the advent of Islam, his bones were disinterred and spirited across the Mediterranean to Spain. At the time, Spain was occupied by the Moors, a dark-skinned people from North Africa. 

This was an innocent tradition when I was a child, and once at a certain age, you were told that St Nicholas and Black Peter was a fable, a bit of fun and a foil for giving presents to each other. You'd be asked to draw a name from a hat and obtain a present for the person concerned. This would be accompanied by a poem, usually in inexecrable rhyme, highlighting the recipient's misdeeds and misfortunes of the year gone by. 

Over the last few years it has become increasingly tainted, and I am now of the opinion that it should be abolished altogether. The reason is that people no longer see that it's just a bit of fun, and is not discriminatory against people with dark skin, or favouring slavery or serfdom. There are protest movements, rallies that turn violent and groups travelling across the country to stop the Grand Entrance of Sinterklaas. 

It is bad enough that Santa Claus (St Nicholas' alter ego) has crept into the commercial side of December in the Netherlands. But violent protests debase the concept of it being a bit of fun for the children. That's the tradition killed off, in the name of political correctness.