Horses on Halloween

Perhaps this Halloween you have found yourself wondering: What do horses do for Halloween? Well, I have the answer for you - they have a costume contest!  This Halloween,  I had the chance to see one of these costume contests in person.

Zorro and her trusty steed.

This horse dressed up as a witch, complete with little broom.

No, the horse did not try to ride the broom.

I'm not sure exactly what this horse is, but it had a cute shiny purple hat, that moved whenever the horse twitched its ears.

A Trojan horse!  Get it?

A horse of a different color.

My grandma and husband, watching the show.

This horse dressed up in 2-D.

Bet you've never seen that before!

This horse won for "Best Accessory" - a little mermaid!

Even the dogs got in on the action.

A Native American with horse.

Horses attempting to line up for judging and a photo opportunity.

This horse dressed up as his namesake - a point if you can guess it.

This dog also got dressed up - as a hobo with a little pack tied to a stick.  Needless to say, the stick didn't last long as the dog went bounding through the house, using his stick to knock over everything.

Not the best thought out costume...

So now next Halloween, when you find yourself wondering where all the horses are - you will know.

Dutch food: The Ugly (and the Weird)

And then there is the stuff that's just plain weird.

Including Dutch sandwiches.

It doesn't sound weird on the outset, but it is common to see a plate of sandwiches at any (and every) Dutch function. These are not your typical American sandwiches, piled high with meat, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, bacon, olives, peppers, mayonnaise and mustard....  There is something very specific about these sandwiches.  They can have one slice of meat, or one slice of cheese.  Never both.  Sometimes you can get a sandwich with both meat and cheese, but it is carefully made so that the meat does not overlap any of the cheese.  I often wondered what would happen if a slice of meat and a slice of cheese did touch on a sandwich.  Would it signal the end of the world?  When I made a comment about this, a Dutch friend said to me, "Meat and cheese on a sandwich?  What do you want, anarchy? What would come next, people dancing naked in the streets?"

Equally strange is that it is very typical to serve cartons of milk along with these sandwiches, even at professional conferences and meetings.  Do you know how weird it is to see a businessman in a suit eating a cheese sandwich and drinking milk from a carton?

But if milk is too tame, there's also karnemelk - or buttermilk.  This is also drank straight from the carton.  Yummy.  *Cough cough*

Then there are bitterballen.

Bitterballen with spicy mustard.  So. Freaking. Good.

What are bitterballen, you ask?  No one really knows.  All we know is that it is some sort of creamed meat, coated in breadcrumbs, fried, and served with beer. The general consensus is that bitterballen are made of either horse or muskrat.  That being said, bitterballen are freaking delicious.

Pancakes are also popular, or pannenkoken.  But how about having two slices of bacon cooked into your pancake?  I love bacon just as much as the next person, but I for one think this is going too far.

Then there's the Dutch sushi.  Pickled herring.  It looks delightfully raw.  The typical method to eat this delicacy is to coat the fish in some raw onions, pick the fish up by the tail, and then gulp it down in one fell swoop.  You can buy these on the street corners - I have yet to work up the courage to try one.

The Yule Lads and a Flesh Eatting Cat

Since our visit to Iceland was shortly after Christmas, we were able to enjoy some of the Christmas traditions of this isolated island.
 

Perhaps the most terrifying part of the Christmas season is the omnipresence of the Yule Cat.  This frightening feline watches children with the most sinister of intentions.

The Yule Cat is watching you...

Eye to eye with the Yule Cat

The Yule Cat has a strange taste in food - he eats those children who do not receive clothes for Christmas.  Therefore children in Iceland don't moan on Christmas morning, "Grandma gave me socks again?  But clothes aren't fun!"  Instead they exclaim in relief, "Grandma gave me socks!  I get to survive another winter without becoming cat food!"

Christmas also brings the Yule Lads, thirteen brothers who come throughout the Christmas season to leave gifts for good children, and rotting potatoes for bad children.  They have interesting names and bizarre personal stories, and most have an affinity for stealing things.  For example, Spoon Licker steals wooden spoons to lick them, and is very thin because he doesn't eat well.  Sausage Swiper hides in the rafters and steals sausages, and Door Slammer slams doors.  Children can expect to hear doors slamming, or have sausages missing from the house, or see spoons covered with saliva, depending on who visited the night before.  We happened to run into one of the Yule Lads on the street one night - a point if you can name him. 

The Christmas season in Reykjavík.  

Icelandic Christmas food is very special.  The traditional drink is Malt og Appelsín, made by mixing together equal parts of a non-alchoholic malt beverage and the orange soda Appelsín.  It's amazingly delicious - it almost tastes a bit like a chocolate orange.   

The traditional Christmas meal is smoked lamb (delicious), potatoes with a white sauce, red cabbage, and yummy giant peas.  

This is paired with a thin bread, sort of like a crispy tortilla, called Laufabrauð, or leaf bread.  It has a wonderful buttery taste!  

Taking the Zwarte out of Zwarte Piet

It's that time of year again!

Time to start the Zwarte Piet controversy anew!

It seems that you either love it or hate it.  I'm talking about the yearly arrival of Sinterklaas.  But it's not Sinterklaas that has everyone talking.  It's his friends/helpers/slaves - the hoards of Zwarte Piets.

Zwarte Piet - Friend or slave?

If you haven't met Zwarte Piet (Black Peter), you can check out my much less controversial post from last year.  Instead of elves, the Dutch Sinterklaas is accompanied by hundreds of "helpers" that paint their faces black, wear colorful clothes, and act goofy as they pass out candy and presents to the kids.  Some of those who grew up with him love him.  Others, especially those who aren't Dutch, are shocked by such a racist caricature.  This year, the controversy has reached new heights.  For me, it started when a co-worker brought Zwarte Piet chocolates to share at lunch... with resulted in a heated argument that lasted no less than 45 minutes.

Sinterklaas and his Racist Candy?

Those who love Zwarte Piet insist he is a well loved children's tradition.  Some say he's not black because of his skin, but because he zips up and down chimneys while delivering presents, and slowly accumulates soot.  Others say that the historical Saint Nicholas was accompanied by a Moor - hence the black skin.  In either case, Piet is a helper of Sinterklaas.  And the kids love him.  

Zwarte Piets perform for the crowds.

Others who hate Zwarte Piet see him as a racist stereotype, something that goes far beyond just his black skin to his large red lips, his frizzy black hair, and his similarity to the politically-incorrect gollywog dolls, now taboo.  His clumsy, bumbling nature doesn't help either.  They claim that Piet is a slave, an especially serious claim, since the historical Saint Nicholas helped to free slaves.  Some even claim it stems from an underlying fear of immigrants.

Goofy antics.

It seems that this year, the controversy reached new heights.  A protester, wearing a shirt with the words "Zwarte Piet is racism" to the annual arrival of Sinterklaas, was arrested by police.  Even a UN task force is investigating Zwarte Piet.  Meanwhile, those who want to keep Zwarte Piet are participating in the pro-Piet petition facebook page, which received over 2 million likes (which, considering the Netherlands has only 17 million people, is especially impressive).

A few years ago, Piet received a makeover, and instead of just Zwarte, Piets showed up in a rainbow of colors.  Outrage resulted.  This year, there was a smaller change of removing Piet's golden earrings, with some Piets wearing different color wigs as well.

Whatever your viewpoint, perhaps the controversy surrounding Zwarte Piet indicates that what one sees as a lovable character others see as an insult - and perhaps we don't understand each other as much as we think we do.    

There's a Hat for That

At the end of my recent trip to the US, I visited New York City for the first time.  And what a city it was.  Let's be frank.  New York is weird.  Wonderfully weird.  There are a ton of "Only in New York" moments I will share with you over the next few days.

I was in New York City for Easter.  One of the big events is the "Easter Bonnet Parade", which is less of a parade, and more of a gathering of people who wear the most interesting, absurd, or just plain weird hats.

Some people dressed up very nicely, in clothes you would expect if, say, you spent the weekend in the 1920's.

This guy went back even farther, and dressed up in the style of the 1620's.

Other people did Easter themes.  These folks were true "egg-heads".

All sorts of Easter bonnets, replete with tons of flowers.

 

To the point it was hard to hold on their heads anymore...

Some got quite large.

And quite complex.

Even the dogs got in on the action.

This little fella was died blue!

The classic beehive.

He has trolls sprouting from his head!!!

And some people didn't stop at only a hat.  I have no idea what fashion statement this guy is going for.

Not caring at all about the cold weather.

Fashionable fur?

The little known "Easter Robot".

One of my favorite hats - it was animated, with spinning eggs and dancing people.

This lady's hat was so lively it attacked an onlooker.