this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2024
346 points (89.0% liked)

196

16725 readers
2750 users here now

Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.

Rule: You must post before you leave.

^other^ ^rules^

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

show transcriptchirasul posted:
my only advice is to BE CAREFUL posting about holiday traditions around europeans. you'll post something casual like "anyone else watch the old Grinch movie every year? what a classic" and a european will appear as if summoned and say some shit like "funny how USAmericans always CONVENIENTLY forget that Not Everyone On Earth is from The USA…….. no of COURSE we dont watch 'the grunch' or whatever the fuck that is…. our tradition is to attend a community showing of Glummdorf the Racial Stereotype"

themainspoon replies with screenshots of several tumblr tags and comments:

riseupriseupandcomealong:
my mom’s (american) class tried doing a language exchange thing w a sister school in spain and they decided to send each other boxes of gifts for christmas. the spanish class made remarks about oh christmas in the usa is so commercialized we have ~real traditions~ here and then my mom opened a box full of blackface dolls and blackface doll ornaments and blackface clothespins in front of her students

raygender:
Did once have a Dutch woman vehemently defend the Festive Christmas Blackface by repeating "it's different in Europe” with increasing desperation until she was crying. Literally all anybody else present did was just like, calmly say they were uncomfortable with the practice and not change her mind when she wailed about it.

monkey-mulch:
you bring up rudolph the red nosed reindeer and they bring out Skimbo the filthy redskin and im barely even joking about that they actually had this thing called indian plays in both soviet countries and germany

themainspoon:
European children waiting patiently on Hatemas Eve for Racism Claus to slur down the chimney and segregate all of their presents by colour.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago (2 children)

My Christmas tradition has the Krampus. He's both not racist and a terrifying monster. I'd call that a holiday tradition jackpot.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Are demons a race or a species?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Krampus does have an unfortunate history of people beating each other up, though. And by "history" I mean "In many places it was the norm until a few years ago, and lots of people didn't get the memo yet and assault people who wear Krampus suits during parades etc.".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

In my hometown, we never had Krampus parades and it was more like children and Krampus pranking each other.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The parades are already the relatively modern, watered-down/'family-friendly' version of the old tradition.

The thing about pranks is that people don't tend to agree on what is okay for a prank. One person's funny prank might be another person's violent assault, same with how the Krampus is allowed to 'retaliate'.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I loved grinch back in the nineties.

Nirvana and all that.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I remember the Atlanta "Sinterklaas is coming to town" episode, hilarious 😂

But I didn't know about this supposed "tradition beforehand, despite living pretty close to the border and went down the Zwarte Piet rabbithole. There was a huge fight nationwide about if it should be banned or replaced (aka ash on fave instead of blackface) and there were a lot of " traditionalists", let's call them racists wanting to preserve their beloved racism custom. There are grown ass people painting their fave pitch balck, lips red, afro wig and gold hoop earrings. Yeah, definitely normal tradition.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (9 children)

in the Netherlands we have a guy named Saint Nicholas that gave money to prostitudes and other poor people to save them, who then decided to join him. The best translation for their names i have is 'squires' but not really. Because they go down our chimneys to deliver gifts it's tradition for them to have ash on their face, which some are calling blackface.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet

Sounds like you're referring to the recent (2021) version, "Sooty Pete" but Black Pete has a couple hundred years on him.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've always heard that they were black because of the ashes. and, the original original Sinterklaas rescued prostitudes

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

… so… why do they wear curly wigs?

… and put on red lipstick?

Does soot make your hair curly and lips extra red?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

You forgot the golden hoop earrings 😂

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Because they go down our chimneys to deliver gifts it's tradition for them to have ash on their face, which some are calling blackface.

This was made up later because people were too uncomfortable with it, this was not the original story.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Dutch Wikipedia has the first references to blackness from soot pinned to an image from the 1870s:

"Zwarte Piet had in deze tijd nog niet zijn huidige naam; zo is hij op een centsprent uit 1870 afgebeeld als een schoorsteenveger met de naam Zwartjan." https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet#%3A%7E%3Atext=Zwarte+Piet+had+in+deze+tijd+nog+niet+zijn+huidige+naam%3B+zo+is+hij+op+een+centsprent+uit+1870+afgebeeld+als+een+schoorsteenveger+met+de+naam+Zwartjan.

Translates to: "Black Pete did not have his current name yet, he was depicted on an image from the 1870s as a chimney sweeper named "Black Jan" (Jan is a stereotypically Dutch name, one of the most common Dutch first names. Pete, or Piet in Dutch, is also a very common Dutch name).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fun post justification for characters originally based on black slaves.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

the original original Sinterklaas was a guy that rescued prostitudes

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In some parts of Germany, the gifts are coming from the "Christ's child" which is an angel, a child, Jesus as a kid, all of them? I am from Germany, and I still don't know.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

It's obviously child Jesus. It's not "Christ's child", it's "Christ (the) child".

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

When do I arm my strategic bomber for the War on Christmas? 🛫💣🎄🎇

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And don't forget to spank your women.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Most of my girlfriends were into that.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

The Jim Jefferies Show had a good bit on this: https://youtu.be/piGzE2cMVqA

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Happy Halcyon Days, everyone!

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›