#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week 50 Prompt: ‘Naughty'

Week 50  Prompt: ‘Naughty’

When my sister (Fran) and I were young girls living on the orchard in Grahamvale  Victoria, we celebrated Christmas as a family affair at home in the morning and later with the extended Pearce families.  Santa Claus filled our little unbleached calico sewn stockings that Mum had made, with netting fronts and our names penned at the top.  There were nuts in shells and some sweets, little paper blowing trumpets or tin animal clickers, and nice big fruit. We had Christmas presents under the decorated tree from Mum and Dad and each other.  FIne glass trimmings were handed down the family. Coloured concertina Chinese paper lanterns hung around the Big Room amidst streamers we had made.

The rest of the day we went out to the original Pearce orchard where matriarch Grandma Pearce lived with  Aunty Tibbie, Uncle Jim and Aunty Muriel and children next door and Aunty Ray and Uncle Ray down the road a bit with their family Jim and Isobel.

The Oaktree seedling Grandma and Grandpa had brought out from Scotland in 1912, was now a large spreading tree and was decorated with coloured light bulbs and streamers each year. We all shared Christmas lunch and leftovers for dinner.  I can remember Aunty Muriel telling us kids to go away for a bit when they were preparing the meal.  She was cutting up the chicken and I reached for a fragment (as Mum let us) and she brought her carving knife down just short of my finger – making a definite point that stayed in my mind forever.  The kids ran free and swam in the channel.  In the evening, once dark, we were handed presents from the tree, including the orchard workers still around.

Some of the family surrounding the Pearce Christmas tree 

lit up for gift time

***

However, one year we learned of a different celebration. We had a family emigrated from Holland who came to live over the road.  They invited Fran and me to attend their Dutch Club Christmas celebrations in the lead up to Christmas day.

And so, we met ‘Black Peter’ for the first time.  An energetic young fellow with painted black face and hands. It was explained to us that he dealt with the children who had not been good during the year.  We were petrified of him and remembered all the naughty things we had done the past year.  He ran down the street ahead of the truck with St Nicholas on it. He took some of the boys aside and spoke to them.  We were so relieved when he didn’t come to us.

‘Taking away the naughty children’,  Source: J. Schenkman 1885.

Ref: Holidappy, https://holidappy.com/holidays/Different-versions-of-Santa-Claus

St Nicholas’ truck stopped at the hall and he handed out gifts to us all – Fran and I were surprised that we were included (I don’t know how that happened still). 

I received a wonderful little china doll’s tea-set in a pretty box and loved it. I treasured it so much over the years. When I had my own first daughter I eventually reneged and let her play with it.  She did love it too, but gradually pieces broke or went missing until there was only a little cup, saucer and jug left.  All well and truly gone now – but the memory of being thought of so sweetly on that day lives on.

As well as not being naughty so ‘Black Peter’ doesn’t come after me.

Some information about St Nicholas and ‘Black Peter’(Zwarte Piet)

Origins:

According to Hélène Adeline Guerber and others,^[3][4] the origin of Sinterklaas and his helpers has been linked by some to the Wild Hunt of Odin. Riding the white horse Sleipnir, he flew through the air as the leader of the Wild Hunt. He was always accompanied by two black ravens, Huginn and Muninn.^[5] These helpers would listen, just like Zwarte Piet, at the chimney, which was just a hole in the roof at that time, to tell Odin about the good and bad behavior of the mortals below.^[6][7]

The introduction of Zwarte Piet did coincide, by and large, with a change in the attitude of the already existing Sinterklaas character, who had been quite severe towards bad children himself, and had in fact often been presented as a bogeyman when he was still a solitary character;^[9] moreover, some of the same terrifying characteristics that were later associated with his servant Zwarte Piet were often attributed to Saint Nicholas himself.^[13] The depiction of a holy man in this light was troubling to both teachers and priests. Sometime after the introduction of Zwarte Piet as Sinterklaas' servant, both characters adopted a softer character.^[14]

The lyrics of older traditional Sinterklaas songs, still sung today, warn that while Sinterklaas and his assistant will leave well-behaved children presents, they will punish those who have been very naughty. For example, they will take bad children and carry these children off in a burlap sack to their homeland of Spain, where, according to legend, Sinterklaas and his helper dwell out of season. These songs and stories also warn that a child who has been only slightly naughty will not get a present, but a "roe", which is a bundle of birch twigs, implying that they could have gotten a birching instead, or they will simply receive a lump of coal instead of gifts.

Reference:Wikipedia: ‘Zwarte Piet, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet, Accessed 09 December 2018.

The history of Sinterklaas, Father Christmas, and  Zwarte Piet.

The Dutch Sinterklaas looks at first glance very much like Father Christmas. On closer inspection though, Sinterklaas is a tall skinny serious-looking bloke with a long white beard and a miter on his head wearing a floor-length red robe over a pontifical dress - which makes sense because he is actually a bishop.

On his birthday, the 5^th of December, he hands out presents to all the Dutch children that have been good. Adults get nothing.

He precedes the American-led legend of Father Christmas or Santa by about 50 years, having been introduced in the 1850s in the United States by Dutch immigrants.

Sinterklaas is more stern than Father Christmas. Not only does he cut a statelier figure, he is also a grounded man who transports himself on a white horse, not reindeer.

While he does ride the Dutch rooftops at night to deliver the presents through the chimneys - a feat in itself for such an old man - you won’t catch him flying through the air with a bunch of reindeer (who are notoriously untamable) in a magical sleigh.

Their outfits are Renaissance in style, complete with bright colourful fabrics and tight tights and puffy pants. Black make-up is painted thickly on their faces.

Adorned with black curly wigs, big golden earrings and red lipstick, the Zwarte Piets jump around throwing candy (pepernoten) into the crowds and generally play silly buggers with everyone, except for with Sinterklaas – who is their boss, and they, his helpers.

The key difference in the blackface debate come to his helpers: Father Christmas has an army of elf helpers, Sinterklaas has servants - black servants. (Some say from the Moors, others from going down the chimneys. 

As the tradition of 'Sinterklaas' or 'St Nick's Day' is celebrated ... by Dutch nationals all around the world, the topic of Santa's sidekick, the blackface character known as 'Zwarte Piet' or 'Black Pete', continues to divide the Dutch community - even in Australia.  It now causes quite a commotion with Anti-Racist riots due to the wording ‘Black’ and the painting of the faces.

[St Nick's] servants are all, without exception, called Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), which many people still proudly dress up as every year.

In the Dutch legend, Sinterklaas actually lives in Spain, and the Zwarte Pieten are ‘Moors’ who live in Spain. Once a year he gets on a steamboat and sails to the Netherlands to celebrate his birthday with all his Zwarte Pieten.

 Reference: SBS: ‘Dutch Home’, https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/dutch/en/article/2017/12/05/controversial-black-pete-tradition-continues-australia-dutch-sinterklaas, Accessed 09 December 2018.