Don’t call it an arrival, says Marc Weterings. The entry takes place on Saturday. Then Sinterklaas will also arrive in Rijswijk, and Mayor Huri Sarin will receive him.
The parade is a week later. Then Sinterklaas will be in South Holland again, but on the initiative of organizer Weterings. “In the shelter,” he says. “We want to be left alone.” And: “We are not here waiting for shouters from Amsterdam or Rotterdam. It should not be Staphorst II here.” There, an angry crowd tried to stop demonstrators from Kick Out Zwarte Piet last year.
Because in Rijswijk the parade is, in the words of Weterings, “traditional”. With Black Petes. The parade, which is organized on behalf of the municipality, is in accordance with the guidelines of broadcaster NTR, so with soot-wiped Piets and Piets with all kinds of skin and hair colors.
Black Pete
In many municipalities, Zwarte Piet has been banned in the past few years at the parades where the mayor receives Saint Nicholas. But this does not always apply to parades organized by private individuals, in neighborhoods or at sports clubs. And not every Sinterklaas committee consults with the municipality about the color of the Piets. In Elburg, Gelderland, where Kick Out Zwarte Piet was held on Monday evening occupied the council meetingthat seems to be the case: there are Sooty Petes when Saint Nicholas is received by the mayor on Saturday, but Black Pete is on the announcement of an arrival in a neighborhood a week later.
In many municipal arrivals, Piet changed into a soot wipe Piet in 2020, when events could not take place due to the corona rules and the color discussion therefore disappeared into the background. The year before, the arrival in some municipalities looked more like a risk competition with a police force on its feet that had to prevent Black Pete supporters from attacking the Kick Out Black Pete (KOZP) demonstrators.
Event policy
The arrival in Rijswijk was also canceled due to the corona rules. The couple who had been organizing Sinterklaas with a group of volunteers for over a decade dropped out. And Marc Weterings, councilor on behalf of Rijswijks Belang, thought it was a “shame” to simply let the party pass by; he organized the manifestation ‘who doesn’t know him’, which was allowed according to the corona rules. And the next year, and last year, a parade.
In March, long before anyone thought about Sinterklaas, the Rijswijk city council met about the events policy: the Strandwal Festival and the Summer Festival in Oud-Rijswijk. And, Maaike Harmsen of the Christian Union wanted to know, wasn’t the Sinterklaas arrival also part of that? “Yes,” said the councilor. “I submitted a motion that the municipality should have the parade organized again, in collaboration with shopkeepers’ associations, and according to the NTR’s Piet formula.”
It caused division during a tumultuous council meeting, in which Harmsen felt threatened by Weterings. Initially – due to the absence of a councilor – the votes were tied at 15-15, in the second instance the motion was adopted by 17-13.
Harmsen says: “If you want to organize something citywide, it must be inclusive.” But Weterings is still not happy with the council motion. He says: “Politics should not interfere with anything that can be organized by society.” He says: “I have not heard any dissonance in previous years.”
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Make-up tradition
He wants to “stay away” from the discussion about Zwarte Piet. “People are fed up.” He does not understand that Zwarte Piet is discriminatory for Dutch people of color. “We are talking about a magical figure. The make-up tradition is part of this. Our helpers are teachers and shopkeepers, they don’t want to be recognized by children. That masquerade is not some smudge or purple. Black makes you unrecognizable.”
Weterings did not hesitate about canceling his parade. “As long as there is interest, I will organize a parade,” he says. “Just like every boy scout, every football club, and every neighborhood association is allowed to do.” The permit for the event must still be approved by the municipality. Indeed, ‘traditional Petes’ offer themselves online. Weterings: “You don’t have to come, right? Anyone who is in favor of soot sweeping Petes will enjoy the arrival.”