In The Netherlands, Sinterklaas is the the manifestation of St. Nicholas. Sint, a Turkish bishop who lives in Spain, arrives on his boat every November. He rides his white horse throughout this small Protestant country, accompanied by his Zwarte Pieten (Black Peters) and on December 5th he brings presents to all the good Dutch children. The bad children are taken away in a sack to live with Sint in Spain for a year. Doesn’t sounds like a bad punishment to me, but most certainly can be attributed to the long and difficult war for independence from the Spanish Empire and “evil” king Philip. Glad to see that after 500 years or so they can forgive and forget!!

Well St. Nick is of course also the basis for Santa Claus, Father Christmas and more. Inquisitive Dutch minds however cannot understand why Santa brings presents on Christmas. After all, Sint was a generous man who on his own birthday gave gifts to poor children and that is the “historical” basis for gift-giving. And duh of course his birthday was on Dec. 5th!

I can’t seem to convince some Dutch though that Santa and Sint are manifestations of the same myth. “Those silly Americans have messed it all up!” Curious, I looked up St. Nicholas and discovered that his feast day is December 6th. So besides the red and the fur and the little helpers, Santa and Sint also share that “night before” thing, since Dec 5th is the eve of St. Nicholas’s feast day.

Now having been raised Catholic I know that a saint’s feast day is like a birthday and has historically been celebrated in a similar fashion. If you are named for a saint, you may even be congratulated on that day, in addition to your actual birthday. At least I have some distance memories of such things happening in my South American family. Not named for saint myself, I sadly missed out on this extra birthday.

So apparently the sober, Calvinist Dutch have morphed a Catholic icon (the irony is too good to be true) into a central childhood belief. But it is also quite apparent that even adults haven’t quite realized that the performance of Sint is make believe, just a story. Eventually kids realize Santa is make believe, but Sint is somehow “real,” an example of make belief performance.

What I find amazing is that an old white man with his “goofy black” sidekicks can convince a modern, well-educated nation to believe such a lie. Oh, but wait we have an even bigger and dumber example!! George Jr. was re-elected. Sigh. Powell, African American and popular among the people, presented the now infamous lie, doing the dirty work for his venerable boss. “Here, here what an exquisite performance. Well done, well done.” Come now Condoleeza, you’re all alone now. Take center stage. Your adoring fans await.

What’s worse being black and letting yourself be a pawn in the continuation of white male domination? Or raising an entire nation to believe that black people are just goofy helpers for the great, gift-bestowing white male Protestant (er Catholic?) patriarch?

How much longer will people continue accepting those lies wrapped up in pretty packages? It’s time to read between the lines of those tired old scripts.