The City of Ibiza, governed by PSOE and United We, celebrated yesterday the festival of Sinterklass , which is celebrated on the eve of St. Nicholas of the Netherlands, and the origin of the American Santa Claus.
His black pages, Zwarte Pieten , involved in the last five years in several controversies on racial issues, even reaching the UN commission that investigates racial discrimination, visited the Library of the Association of Neighbors of Ses Figueretes last Wednesday to collect the Children's letters And yesterday they accompanied San Nicolás on his arrival by boat to the promenade, where a tasting of typical Dutch products was made among all attendees.
The event was organized by the Dutch residents of the island and the Association of Neighbors of ses Figueretes, and was included by the Consistory in its Christmas holiday program, despite having no roots in the island . However, the same municipal program omitted the traditional Bethlehem that is installed in the church of San Telmo, and that every year visit about 3,000 people .
From the Consistory they blamed the Bishopric , with whom he maintains a bitter relationship, that the Bethlehem does not appear on the program, because they were not notified either of the opening day, or of the hours in which it would be open to the public to visit it . "He did not enter in time to be able to print it, but as soon as they provide us with the data we will update this information," they said.
The mayor of Ibiza, Rafa Ruiz , and the bishop of the island, Vicente Juan Segura , do not have a good relationship because of the former's refusal to participate in any religious event that is celebrated. In fact, as soon as he reached the government in 2015, he was accused of trying to liquidate the Bethlehem of San Telmo by withdrawing the subsidy. From the opposition they called him "Grinch", and accused him of "suppressing traditions by ideology."
The mayor replied that his position on the Church "is in the line of modern democracies," although he finally gave his arm a twist and there was Bethlehem. Of course, of the 4,000 euros with which it was subsidized it has been passed to the current 2,000 . This year's budget for the Christmas holidays is 316,000 euros, of which almost half go in lighting.
Sinterklass is celebrated on the eve of Saint Nicholas in the Netherlands, becoming one of its most important Christmas traditions. Its origin is the figure of St. Nicholas of Bari (Bishop of Mira, in present-day Turkey) in the fourth century.
Not only his bishop's clothing inspired the current Santa Claus, but his controversial pages, the Zwarte Piet (in Spanish Pedro el Negro) carry a sack of gifts and descend through the chimneys of the houses to leave the gifts in the children's shoes .
Jamaican historian Verene Shepherd , an advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, opened an investigation after receiving a complaint from the Netherlands, and ended up calling the pages a " stereotyped version of the slave ." He also said that Dutch society ignores its own history: "It is surprising that one does not see that there is a problem of inequality in the relationship between the page and St. Nicholas."
Some cities, companies and television networks have made changes such as including people of different races with a soot-stained face, instead of painting it. Another theory defends that the page, in fact, is an Italian chimney sweeper; and his face would be black because of the chimney soot.
The Dutch justice ruled in 2018 that the classic Zwarte Piet could not be banned, claiming it was a popular tradition not without debate. Although Sinterklass has no roots in Spain, the truth is that the Dutch celebrate the tradition telling that it comes from Alicante . The origin is that the remains of San Nicolás are in Bari from 1087, a city that belonged to the crown of Aragon, and therefore to Spain until the 18th century. Another theory is because San Nicolás is also the patron of Alicante.
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