-FILE- In this Saturday Nov. 16, 2013, image The Dutch version of Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicholas, and his blackface sidekicks "Zwarte Piet" or "Black Pete" arrive by steamboat in Hoorn, north-western Netherlands.
Saint Nicholas is due to arrive in the Netherlands Saturday Nov. 16, 2019, in an annual children's party that has become the backdrop for increasingly acrimonious confrontations between supporters and opponents of his sidekick, Black Pete, a depictions which opponents say promotes racist stereotypes.
(AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)THE HAGUE The Dutch version of St. Nicholas is due to arrive in the Netherlands in an annual childrens party that has become the backdrop for increasingly acrimonious confrontations between supporters and opponents of his sidekick, Black Pete.
Opponents say such depictions promote racist stereotypes, while supporters defend the helper of Sinterklaas, the white-bearded, red-robed Dutch version of St. Nicholas, as a traditional children's character.
On Saturday, the nationally televised arrival of Sinterklaas is happening, amid tight security, in the central city of Apeldoorn.