In some cultures, Santa is not split into a good and bad side but rather was depicted as a not-so-jolly figure:
He was known as ru Klas (“Rough Klaus”) or Knecht Ruprecht (note his horns). Ruprecht is the Germanic form of Rupert or Robert. He is sometimes called St. Rupert or St. Robert. The word “knecht” ties back to the word “minstrel” as it means “servant” or “farmhand.” In fact, Zwarte Piet is often referred to as “Knecht.”
There appears to be a connection between Zwarte Piet and blackface minstrelsy in the U.S. In Europe, mumming plays were popular for centuries and were put on in people’s kitchens for a small fee, the blackface character in the play was not an African but the evil character who slays the hero and takes his girl (played by a man in drag). A physician appears and heals the hero and resurrects him. The hero then revives and confronts the blackface character and, after a prolonged fight, would kill him and take his girl back. This play was an ancient reenactment of the sun/hero dying during the winter months when darkness prevails (the blackface villain) and then being reborn after Christmas Day and waxing stronger until his light banishes the dark. The play is actually never-ending and cyclical. Minstrelsy was probably descended from mumming plays since minstrel performances were originally put on in people’s kitchens and some of the players wore blackface. Eventually, blackface minstrelsy became its own genre. Even black minstrels wore blackface. Perhaps coincidentally, some old minstrel sheet music attributes authorship to “Santa Claus.”
The mummers of St. Alban’s.
An old mumming photo.
A mumming book where the villain is identified as Beelzebub and depicted as a black man. In the woodcut below, a witches’ sabbat is depicted at Berwick. Notice Satan on the left is black. In fact, during this time, the Devil was very frequently referred to as “the Black Man”:
Morris dancers in blackface. This also ties back to Black Pete who was depicted as Moorish as the word “Morris” as used here is widely believed to be a corruption of the word “Moorish.”
Black has also symbolized death as a rebirth, a period of gestation before new life emerges. While depicted dualistically in the mumming play, the light and dark come together as one through the Black Madonna and Bambino statues. Here, they are representations of the new moon whose face is black but gives the eminent promise of the new light. The statues were never meant to be taken as a depiction of an African mother and child. In Ethiopia, the oldest Christian nation on earth, the Black Madonna is absent. They venerate only the white one.
Some may dispute that mumming plays have anything to do with American minstrelsy since the mumming play was never known to have come to the shores of the United States. The link is that mumming plays were put on by young bachelors who went from house to house in London and other English cities offering to act out the drama for tips. The plays were put on in the kitchen. The mummers carried brooms or besoms with them with which they would sweep out an area in the kitchen—a way of magically purifying the area. The play was said to be so convincing that when the Hero is stabbed and the fake blood spilled out, members of the audience often screamed or fainted believing that something had gone wrong and the person really had been stabbed.
In America, minstrel shows were often put on in the kitchen with the area being swept clean first. Cockrell tells us of dance contest in Boston between two prostitutes—Nancy Holmes and Susan Bryant—at the Long Wharf. A reporter who was present wrote that a company of women came down the wharf in a trot. Each lady carried a broom. The reporter wrote: “…at the word of command, they all commenced to sweeping Long Wharf for a clean spot which was soon done.” A “negro fiddler” provided the music. All the music was from the minstrel stage—“Miss Lucy Long,” “What Did You Come From? (Knock a N-igger Down),” “Jenny Get Your Hoe Cake Done” and the last one not mentioned but said by the reporter to be a favorite dance tune of James Sanford who danced in “negro extravaganzas.”
One of the most famous of the early blackface minstrel songs was “Clare de Kitchen” which has been done since at least 1832. Cockrell points out the verses show a very clear relationship to mumming:
In old Kentuck in de arternoon,
We sweep de floor wid a bran new broom,
And dis de song dat we do sing,
Oh! Clare de kitchen old folks young folks
Clare de kitchen old folks young folks
Old Virginny never tire.
I have found an even firmer connection through the song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” While the song shows no evidence of being published before 1894, one verse is definitely from a much older song from England written in the 1830s or 40s by J. H. Cave:
Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone's in the kitchen I know
Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Strummin' on the old banjo!
Whether Cave wrote this verse with these exact words is not known but the blackface minstrel E. P. Christy used it in his act as part of the song “Farewell Ladies” in 1847. It clearly refers to a minstrel performance in the kitchen and may have been revised from a mumming play in the kitchen. One version of “Farewell Ladies” contains the line:
Goodnight, ladies! Goodnight, ladies! Goodnight, ladies! We're going to leave you now.
This indicates the act was intended mainly for the entertainment of the ladies. Once again, this has parallels to the mumming plays in England for these were put on by young bachelors whose purpose, at least in part, was to find young ladies to court and, by entering the houses of well-to-families, had a chance to scope out the females who might reside there. This carried over into rock and roll where the girls swooned over the guy up there with his ax playing that rockin’ song. If you doubt, listen to this 1925 recording of minstrel man Wendall Hall:
"Red Headed Music Maker " Sung by Wendall Hall playing a Ukelele Victor Record C 1925 - YouTube
The oldest folk festival in the United States is the Mummers Parade held every New Year’s Day in Philadelphia. The parade’s theme song is “O Dem Golden Slippers” by black minstrel singer and songwriter James A. Bland. They also perform the “Mummer’s Strut” which they do in the fashion of a 19th century cakewalk dance. The mummers here insist the mumming play did come to the United States and settled in Philadelphia.
So, we see that blackface has a long tradition in the West prior to the emergence of minstrelsy in the U.S. We see that its roots are embedded deeply into pagan notions of good and evil as represented in the stars and planets due to the need for a good planting and harvesting season. These ancient connections were so overgrown with more modern religious and racial detritus that the symbolism of blackness was transferred over to African slaves.