we'll gladly be the first persons to comment <grrrr> We are dutch and your view of the dutch is very skewed! The Saint Nicholas holiday is a very traditional, non-racist, festival. Zwarte Piet has a bag full of candy and the like to hand out to all good children. When the sack is empty the badchildren will be gathered in it and taken to the Saints palace to work for a year (watch out next time you're in The Netherlands at that time!) The gifts are given on the eve of december 5 - not on christmas. The tradition of giving gifts on christmas is derived from the dutch Saint Nicholas feast, and while they were at it, they transmuted our venerable Saint in a Jolly Saint Nick with reindeer - the IDEA! Zwarte Piet is a reminder of the devil which can come and get you if you're not good. Saint Nicholas was a 4th century saint in Turkey, renowned for his giving of gold to three girls in need of a dowry and restoring a couple of schoolboys - that were killed and salted by a wicked innkeeper - back to life. Nicholas bones now rest in Bari, Italy. We hope to have set you right (a bit)

said hannabruin 2002.02.27 at 14:38:23 PST