The information about Sinterklass tradition is taken from Wikipedia.
Sinterklaas is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on the night before Saint Nicholas Day (5 December) in the Netherlands and on the morning of 6 December, Saint Nicholas Day itself, in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Northern France (French Flanders, Lorraine and Artois).
Sinterklaas is an elderly, stately and serious man with white hair and a long, full beard. He wears a long red cape or chasuble over a traditional white bishop's alb and sometimes red stola, dons a red mitre and ruby ring, and holds a gold-coloured crosier, a long ceremonial shepherd's staff with a fancy curled top.
He traditionally rides a white horse. In the Netherlands, the horse is called Amerigo, and in Belgium, it is named Slecht Weer Vandaag, meaning "Bad Weather Today".
Sinterklaas carries a big book that tells whether each child has been good or naughty in the past year.
Zwarte Piet (plural Zwarte Pieten) is a companion of Sinterklaas, usually portrayed by a man in blackface with black curly hair, dressed up like a 17th-century page in colourful attire, often sporting a lace collar and a feathered cap. He first appears in print as the nameless servant of Saint Nicholas in Sint-Nikolaas en zijn knecht ("St. Nicholas and His Servant"), published in 1850 by Amsterdam schoolteacher Jan Schenkman; but the tradition appears to date back at least as far as the early 19th Century.
Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet are typically depicted carrying a bag which contains candy for nice children and a birch rod, a chimney sweep's broom made of willow branches, used to spank naughty children. Some of the older Sinterklaas songs make mention of naughty children being put in the bag and being taken back to Spain. The Zwarte Pieten toss candy around, a tradition supposedly originating in the story of Saint Nicholas's saving three young girls from prostitution by tossing golden coins through their window at night to pay their dowries. In recent years the roe has been absent, to adapt to modern times.
In modern adaptations for television, Sinterklaas has developed a Zwarte Piet for every function: there is a head Piet (Hoofdpiet), a navigation Piet (Wegwijspiet) to navigate the steamboat from Spain to the Netherlands, a packing Piet (Pakjespiet) to pack all the gifts, an acrobatic Piet to climb roofs and stuff presents down the chimney, or to climb down the chimneys themselves. Over the years many stories have been added, and Zwarte Piet has developed from a rather unintelligent helper into a valuable assistant to the absent-minded saint.[3]
Traditionally Zwarte Piet's face is said to be black because he is a Moor from Spain. Today, some prefer to say that his face is blackened with soot, as he has to climb through chimneys to deliver his gifts. The figure of Zwarte Piet is considered by some to be racist and the character has become increasingly controversial, especially in the Netherlands, in recent years.[4] As such, the traditions surrounding the holiday of Sinterklaas have been the subject of numerous editorials, debates, documentaries, protests and even violent clashes at festivals.[5][6]
Nevertheless, both Zwarte Piet and the holiday remain popular in the Netherlands. In a 2013 survey, 92% of the Dutch public did not perceive Zwarte Piet as racist or associate him with slavery, and 91% were opposed to altering the character's appearance.[7] However, beginning in 2013, several Dutch retail chains including Hemaand V&D began changing their seasonal Sinterklaas products and displays in order to include a revised version of Zwarte Piet without the makeup or other racially sensitive characteristics.
