"Zwarte Piet" # "Black Piet"

Travel around the world and enjoying other children or people with the story of Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas), his horse "Slecht weer vandaag" (Bad Weather Today) and his helper "Zwarte piet". My son will be pleased about recieving stories and/or pictures of the adventures which Zwarte Piet is experiencing on his journey. Maybe he is lucky and Zvarte Piet returns to him in 2014. So that he can keep him as a very special memory of his childhood. As Zwarte Piet is a nice, funny and being helpful guy, and my son still loves him, please  let me know if he is damaged or needs help or assistance. Thank you for taking care of him.

This is a PlayMobil figure of my little son, which he got from Belgium. He wants Zwarte Piet to tell other children the story of Sinterklaas (St.Nicholas), his horse "Slecht weer vandaag" (Bad weather today) and Zwarte Piet.  My son is fond of this characters . He is fond of his toy, too. But as well he wants to delight other children by having a visit from this cute figure. He hopes that other children around the world will enjoy the story as much as he does. May be the get interested and want to learn more about this story by using the internet. As Zwarte Piet is the helper of Sinterklaas, of course it is him travelling around and not Sinterklaas himselv .
A short story tells as follows (of course there are different versions of the story):
According to a legend in the Netherlands and Belgium, Sinterklaas comes by ship from Spain - and this already in the middle of November. Nobody knows why he of all things is coming from Spain . According to tradition, Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet bring gifts to the children on the Sinterklaas celebration day (St. Nicholas' day) on December, 6th. Zwarte Piet climbs in through the chimneys of houses – while the people living in the house are sleeping - and distributes sweets. He also acts as a helper of Sinterklaas to hold his book or his crozier and to guide his horse, or to perform other work for Sinterklaas.

Until the 70s of the last century, Zwarte Piet often has a birch with him, using to punish the bad children with. Nowadays the birch can only be seen very rarely in the hands of Zwarte Piet, and although it is still there as an attribute, it is no longer used. Zvarte Piet is now a respectable, nice and funny helper of Sinterklaas, especially in films for children. By the way, to me the name of the horse of Sinterklaas, “Slecht ver van dag” (Bad weather today),  is funny by it selv. Today children in the Netherlands and Belgium look forward to the arrival of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet as a part of the Christmas tradition. Our children have much funn with this tradition and its songs and films for children. Actually, today Zwarte Piet is also not a black person anymore, but a white person rouged black. Or is he black because he is climbing in and out chimneys? Who knows?