Zwarte Piet: friend or foe?

Quirky Belgium

Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) is Saint Nicolas's helper. Traditionally, boys and girls in Belgium and Holland put their shoe by the chimney on the eve of December 6. If you've been good, Saint Nicolas will bring you a present, which Zwarte Piet delivers by going down the chimney and putting it in your shoe.  Photos by John Weaver

A staple character in a harmless holiday tradition or an anachronistic hangover from Belgium's and Holland’s colonial pasts? Innocent symbol fun or thinly disguised racism? 

Zwarte Piet: friend or foe?

Thanksgiving a la Belgium

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Thanksgiving turkey  Photos by John Weaver

Krakow: the search for pierogi

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The 15th century Cloth Hall in the center of the Main Square in Krakow  Photos by John Weaver

Etretat: A place to remember

Wanderings

Photos by John Weaver

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “Granpaw, are you still there?” All I said was that I would be in Normandy for a wedding when… silence. 

“Etretat,” he finally said, faintly, before disappearing again in thought. It had been more than sixty years since he was in France, but that day on the phone I could tell my Granpaw had been transported back.

It was late summer, 1944. Fresh from the front lines, twenty year old Private First Class Bruce Wiegel arrived in Etretat, a tiny Norman village neighboring the beaches that bore the brunt of the D-Day invasion. He hadn’t come fight, but rather to make peace – peace with the war, peace with the land, and, no doubt, peace with himself.

Under the bridge

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Mechelen, Belgium  Photo by John Weaver

Dia de los Muertos

Scrapbook

By John Weaver

Happy All Souls' Day, All Saints' Day, Halloween & Dia de los Muertos! Here's a calavera ("skull") from my scrapbook.

See more from my scrapbook

Career courier

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François, a courier in Brussels  Photo by John Weaver

Nanny state

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Look Both Ways, London  Photo by John Weaver

Brussels Night Song

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The Flamingo cafe in Brussels  Photo by John Weaver

Bird’s eye view

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A view of my neighborhood from atop the Sint-Romboutstoren  Photo by John Weaver