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On the evening of 5 December, Dutch friends and families get together to celebrate their unique take on the festive season.
ADVERTISEMENTWhile many Europeans will wait until the end of December for their Christmas celebrations, the Dutch have already got going. This evening (5 December) signifies the Sinterklaas evening with the following day celebrated as the Feast of Sinterklaas for Dutch people in the Netherlands, Belgium and around the world.
As Dutch people get ready to celebrate Sinterklaas for another year, it’s worth looking into the traditions and how they’ve evolved over time. In particular, there’s the longstanding discussion over the Netherlands’ love-hate relationship with the controversial figure Zwarte Piet to contend with.
Sinterklaas is Dutch for Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children who is believed to have died on 6 December 343. The Greek bishop of Myra – present day Türkiye – has become a world famous figure for his kind deeds to the poor and the needy. You may have heard of Saint Nicholas for the other character he’s inspired – Santa Claus.
The Dutch have been celebrating the feast of Sinterklaas for at least 700 years. Since the 19th century, they’ve also routinely celebrated Sinterklaas’ arrival to the Netherlands from Spain by boat after an event in Zwolle in 1873 saw a local dressed as the saint give out sweets to children.
Today, the arrival of Sinterklaas by boat and the ensuing parade is a massive televised event across the Dutch speaking world. This typically takes place on the first Saturday after the 11th of November.
Sinterklaas traditions
Tonight, as Dutch families gather together to celebrate they will likely draw lots to decide who to give presents to. Essentially, this is the Sinterklaas equivalent of a Secret Santa present draw for anyone unfamiliar.
The twist is, Dutch people don’t just package up a lazily thought of gift for the colleague they’ve been allotted at their work Christmas party. For Sinterklaas, they’re more likely to have a friend or family member and write out a whole poem for them. These poems change depending on the tradition of the family, but often have thinly veiled insults thrown in as a sort of annual comedy roast of your loved ones. Wrapping up your disdain for another in the packaging of cultural tradition is very Dutch, by the way.
That’s not all, the gift they give alongside the insulting poem will always be elaborately hidden. Think mysterious tips taking you around the house only to lead you to a pair of socks, or a seemingly huge gift that’s actually far too many layers of tightly bound wrapping paper for a tiny trinket.
Much like with Santa Claus at Christmas, children hope for a gift to come overnight from Sinterklaas. To do this, they’ll often line up their shoes at the fireplace and pray for a sweet delight in the morning.
If you want to eat like a Dutch person this Sinterklaas, there are two key figures here: pepernoten and chocoladeletters. Pepernoten are basically just dry ginger biscuits, while chocoladeletters are… chocolate in the shape of a letter. Usually you give someone the chocolate letter that corresponds with the first letter of their name.
The Zwarte Piet situation
This might all seem fun and games so far, but there’s long been a controversial element involved in Sinterklaas celebrations. When the saint arrives in November, he has historically been accompanied by his helper Zwarte Piet (Black Pete).
The origin of Zwarte Piet is disputed with some claiming the diminutive Black figure is a Moor who has come with Sinterklaas from Spain, to others suggesting his colouring is due to soot from sweeping chimneys.
Whatever the explanation, Zwarte Piet has been historically represented by adults and children in Blackface makeup and an afro wig. Unsurprisingly, this led to many Dutch people of colour finding the tradition insulting and finding the celebration a traumatic experience growing up in the Netherlands.
In response, Dutch activist Jerry Afriyie started the Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) movement in 2014 after years of protesting the practice.
KOZP has held multiple demonstrations against Zwarte Piet, but they’ve not gone without resistance from conservatives who want to hold the tradition sacrosanct. Afriyie has been arrested three times for demonstrating. The National Terrorism Threat Assessment Netherlands (DTN) listed his group as an “extreme left anti-racist action group” in 2017, a decision that was retracted in 2019.
ADVERTISEMENTSuggesting that the tradition was hurtful to Black people in the Netherlands has driven some Dutch people so mad that they have gone to extreme lengths to stop the KOZP protests. In 2017, multiple busses with KOZP protestors were blocked from reaching their destination in the Frisian region, leading to multiple convictions for the bus blockers and “blocking Frisians” becoming the word of the year in 2018.
This year, KOZP has held multiple protests, but the campaign seems to be coming to a halt. The group cites 28 local councils who have agreed to hold inclusive Sinterklaas parades. Afriyie has said that the intention was always to wrap up the movement a decade after its founding in 2025.
While KOZP has certainly made the average Dutch person far more aware of the issue with Zwarte Piet since 2014, it’s hard to ignore the movement will be retired amid the Netherlands’ most right-wing government in decades after Party for Freedom (PVV) became the largest political party in 2023.
