Chasing Sinterklaas

I seem to have missed out on a lot of Dutch traditional celebrations this year... I was out of the country for Queen's Day so didn't get the chance to dress up in orange, drink too much beer and sell stuff on the pavement. The spring carnival seemed to pass me by when I was looking in the other direction and even though I was around for Pinksteren, I was under the misguided impression that I was supposed to wear pink. Apparently not.

So today I decided to put things right by paying a visit to Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas (in case you haven't already guessed... the Dutch version of Santa Claus) has arrived in the Netherlands from Spain today on his paddle steamer and has been parading through the streets of Amsterdam on a big white horse, accompanied by lots of little politically-incorrect helpers. These Moorish helpers are called Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes) and they all look like something out of the Black and White Minstrel Show, apart from the velvet knickerbockers and hats with a feather in. Their job is to give out handfuls of gingerbread to the children in the crowd. If I was a five year old and some weird looking blacked-up Dutchman in velvet knickerbockers offered me candy I'd run the other way, but I guess the Dutch kids are used to it.

Perhaps Sinterklaas needed a faster horse (or paddle steamer) but I wasn't in a particularly festive mood by the time he arrived at Leidseplein, an hour behind schedule. It's been a cold, wet day today and I was decidedly soggy by the time he trotted by. I was substantially cheered up, however, by a kindly Zwarte Piet, who filled my hood up with little gingerbread cookies. Sinterklaas himself didn't disappoint either. There was definitely no elastic on his beard (I checked carefully) and he looked pretty regal up there in his posh robes. British Father Christmasses could learn a thing or two from the Dutch I reckon.

Learn more about Sinterklaas here. You can even sing along to the songs if you fancy reading a bit of Dutch (I was very disappointed that I couldn't join in with the singing today. If I'm still here next year I'm going to come prepared with a full repertoire of Dutch Christmas songs).