You might wonder, why happy holidays? It's too soon for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and even for Hannukah. What holiday am I referring to?
The answer is SINTERKLAAS! Sinterklaas is the Dutch equivalent to Christmas. It is the holiday that the little Dutch children look forward to the most. Sint Nicholaas (ie Santa) wears robes and a big red pope's hat. The legend goes that Sint Nicholaas comes from Spain. Every year in the middle of November, Sint Nicholaas travels to the Netherlands by steamboat from Madrid (FUN FACT: Madrid has no port, and is completely surrounded by land.) and arrives in the Netherlands on his white horse (schimmel) and his Black Pieters, or Zwarte Pieten to give the children toys and treats from then until December 5, when he returns back to Spain. Little children leave their shoes by their fireplace or their front door, and the Black Pieters are supposed to come down the chimney and leave little treats in the shoes. This year Sinterklaas occured on this past Sunday November 14, and he arrived on his steamboat down the canal right by where I live! Now what the controversial issue is is the Zwarte Pieten. According to tradition, they are called "Black Pieters" because their faces are black. Their faces are black (apparently) because they always go down the chimneys and are always covered in soot. However, it is not black actors portraying the Pietes, but it is white Dutch citizens that don black face. When I first got to the Netherlands, I was honestly shocked and slightly horrified about the black face. If this stunt was ever pulled in the United States, the NAACP and basically every American citizen would be all over their butts! So all over the city there have been Dutch people, donned in ruffly costumes, black face, and bright red lipstick, running and roller skating all throughout the city. The ironic thing is that the Dutch think that this is a totally acceptable tradition. The Dutch are so pragmatic, socially sensitive, and accepting of prostution, drug addicts, squatters, gay marriages, etc, etc, yet they don't see any racism with the black face. It is preposterous to me. Even some of the little children will dress up as Zwarte Pieten and wear black face as well! Maybe I am not looking through the correct cultural lens when assessing the Dutch situation, but it is a very interesting and highly controversial subject, especially when discussing among the international and non-Dutch students.
Zwarte Pieten
Sint Nicholaas coming down the canal by Steamboat with his boat chock-full of Pietes
Sint Nicholaas himself!
two children excited for Sinterklaas. Note the irony here.On a lighter note, our program is doing a secret santa type thing with Sinterklaas. Our celebration is on December 6, so technically the day after Sint Nicholaas goes back to Madrid. But I will share more info on this when the date arrives.
The rest of my weekend was quite eventful and full of many different cultural events, all spanning over the cultural spectrum. On Friday night I got to go see Ratatat, a New York based electronic/alternative music duo. They combine synthesizers with guitar, bass, and drums. The music is primarily intrumental, with occasional vocal clips. I wasn't expecting anything incredible when I bought the tickets. However, I was completely blown away by their music. It was honestly one of the best live shows I've ever seen. It was a small crowd, but still just an epic show- great sound, cool lights, great vibe. Here is one of the only pictures that I got of the show.
I've always been saying here that there are very few genuinely creepy Dutch people. Well, I was proven completely wrong at Ratatat on Friday. It seems as if every single creeper in a two-mile radius was at Paradiso seeing Ratatat. So many weird, awkward men trying to dance, touch, and creep on the girls. So that was a down side. But aside from the weirdos, the show was absolutely AMAZING!! If anyone ever has the chance to see them live, DO IT. It is completely worth your while, money, and time.Here are some YouTube links to some of their songs:
"Loud Pipes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64liF2VuLxI
"Mirando"-one of my favorites, even though all of them are stellar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk8qcGOtBFw
On Saturday night a few of us engaged in yet another cultural activity. This time it was ballet. It was the Ballet Preljocaj from the Bolshoi Theatre. They are a Russian Ballet company who performed in Amsterdam for a week. They combined beautiful ballet with electronic music, along with other crazy stuff. I wish I could've taken pictures of it, but sadly they don't allow cameras in the theatre :(
The piece was called "A Thousand Years of Peace". I'm not sure what it was about, but it could've involved themes of gender roles, violence, and world peace. I'm not sure, but the whole show was pretty trippy with the cool light effects and electronic music. At one point all of the dancers had a book in each hand and one in their mouth and danced for FIFTEEN minutes with a book in their mouth, doing complicated danced moves non-stop. At one point there were dancers in a bubble of saran wrap, tons of different flags from different countries, and even two baby lambs were brought on stage! Such a random show, but a beautiful and brilliant performance nonetheless.
This week is chock-full of work, school, more work, and other random activities.
FUN FACT: the 7th Harry Potter movie comes out in the Netherlands before London OR the United States. Jealous much?
FUN FACT: A girl in my Dutch class named her dog Febo de Lekkerste. if you don't recall, Febo is a late-night munchie spot where you can get fried snacks out of this vending machine thing. A very funny name for a dog.
funny Dutch words:
moeten=should
moetje=child out of wedlock (rationale behind this word: a child out of wedlock is called a 'moetje' because the parents SHOULD'VE or SHOULD get married with their kid. amusing concept.)
hand=hand
schoen=shoe
handschoen=glove (literally: hand shoe)
vuilnisbak=trash can
hond=dog
vuilnisbakkenhond=mixed breed dog (slang)
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