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Sinterklaas in Town

17 November 2011, by Nicolas St

(1)

SinterKlaas arrives in Amsterdam and parades in front of the cheering crowd together with his servant Zwarte Piet (Black Pete).

Parade photos by Nikos Stamboulopoulos (spiralmove.com). Enjoy!

sinterklaas amsterdam

sinterklaas Zwarte Piet

sinterklaas child

sinterklaas parade 2011

sinterklaas tradition

dam square child

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Vagabond
November 17 2011, 03:28PM

As a foreigner in NL, the Black Pete thing kind of freaks me out. Painting the faces of white, blue-eyed folk to look black is reminiscent to me of the racist images of pre-civil rights America. Debate on where the Black Pete tradition comes from can get pretty heated, and I know it's an ingrained local custom... just saying that most outsiders have different associations with this look than the Dutchies do.