Has anyone heard of Sinterklaas? It's a festival that takes place in the Netherlands. Sinterklaas is the Dutch equivalent of Saint Nicholas. He 'sails’ to the Netherlands every year, with his trusty companion, Zwarte Piet.

Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete, is a confused looking dude, and he isn't a nice one at that. He's traditionally known to punish naughty kids at Xmas, by beating them, taking them away and even using chains. Many, many people dress up as him every year for the festival. They wear Moorish Muslim clothing, afro wigs, red lips, paint their faces black and wear gold hoops, which you may otherwise know as “slave earrings”.

Now, whether this is or isn't racist isn't up for debate. Zwarte Piet depicts racism, without a doubt. Though there are many people who argue that it's not at all racist - apparently his face is that colour from going down chimneys. Yeah, okay..

Over the last some years, people have been calling out the racist tradition and fighting for Zwarte Piet to come to an end. Protests recently took place and they got pretty ugly. This year, on 5th December, Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet will be back, but in Amsterdam he will undergo a slight change for the first time. Zwarte Piet will have black smudges on his face to represent soot from chimneys, no earrings and no afro.

Consider one final thing - Zwarte Piet's character is based on a book, written in the 19th century, which translates to “Saint Nicholas and his servant”. His character was created during the horrid days of slavery, which the Netherlands were very, very heavily involved in.

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Is the amendment to Zwarte Piet's appearance enough? Should those who've been fighting for the racism to come an end put their placards down and consider this a triumph? Should further action be taken?

Some rebels will undoubtedly turn up as the traditional blackface Zwarte Piet, as they did at the protests - how should this be handled?

(Sources include BBC, National Geographic, The Guardian)