United Nations will Investigate Racist Character of Major Dutch 'Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet' Festival.

United Nations will Investigate Racist Character of Major Dutch 'Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet' Festival.HT: TundraTabloids.

At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a letter from the U.N. which stated that the Dutch tradition concerning the major national folklore fest Sinterklaas, which takes place on December 5th, is racist. The assistant of this white bishop is a black person called Zwarte Piet (Black Peter), who, according to the U.N. is presented as stupid and as a servant. This feeds the stereotype that Africans are second-rate citizens. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, South African Navanethem Pillay wants to know whether Black Peter is a racist stereotype. The investigation has to be finished by the end of November.

Saint Nicholas (15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra (Demre, part of modern-day Turkey) in Lycia. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker.He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, itself from a series of elisions and corruptions of the transliteration of "Saint Nikolaos".

Early legends: In the early legends Sinterklaas was either accompanied by a demonic servant or by a Moorish partner responsible for organisation of the gifts

• 1845: Amsterdam-based primary school teacher Jan Schenkman writes the book Sint Nicolaas en zijn Knecht ("Saint Nicholas and his Servant"). This is the first time that a Spanish servant character is introduced into the Saint Nicholas narrative. The servant is described as a page boy or man, and is depicted as a dark person wearing clothes associated with Moors. The book also established another mythos that will become standard: the intocht or "entry" ceremony of Saint Nicholas and his servant (then not yet named Zwarte Piet) involving a steamboat. In the 1850 version of Schenkman's book, he is depicted in simple white clothing with red piping, as the typical Spanish page of the day. In later editions, the page acquires the name "pieter", and is shown in a much more colorful page costume, looking much as he does today. The book stayed in print until 1950 and has had considerable influence on the current celebration.

Hmmmm.........What I find interesting in the whole 'story' is that Zwarte Piet' is a 'Moor' a Muslim who converted to Christianity.....we don't want people to know this fact....do we?

The expression : "hand over someone the Zwarte piet" is derived from a board game and means "make someone responsible for an unattractive job". This expression is also used to blame someone.

Update: Parade with Green Peters Cancelled due to Death Threats