Christmas is the time of the year when
people spend much money on food and gifts to enjoy the holiday season. Their
spending spree boosts economic activities with businesses having their busiest
and most lucrative month of the year. People going to shopping malls are buoyed
up with Christmas music and other treats that encourage them to buy things.
During Christmas there is one figure that people are remarkably familiar with.
He is Santa Claus. The Santa Claus is an inanimate object or a person dressed
as such.
The history of Santa Claus can be traced to
Saint Nicholas who lived in the fourth century in Lycia. Saint Nicholas, the
patron saint of Russia, was born in Patara, a city in the ancient district of
Lycia, Asia Minor which is now in Türkiye. Nicholas belonged to a wealthy
family. He abandoned that status to follow the footstep of Jesus Christ. He
became an archbishop of the church in Myra, Lycia and was reported to have been
in the first Council of Nicaea. He died on December 6, 343 A.D. in Myra. His
remains were later brought by Italian merchants to Bari in Italy. His tomb has
since then become a shrine.
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| Saint Nicholas |
Legend has it that there were three poor
girls in the place where St. Nicholas lived. The girl’s father could not afford
a dowry for their weddings. During that time, it was the woman’s family who
would provide dowry to a man to wed his daughters off. The more the amount of
the dowry, the greater was the opportunity for the woman to have a better
husband. No dowry meant that his three daughters were in danger to be sold to slavery.
It was said that on three separate occasions a bag of gold was tossed through
the window and landed in shoes or stockings that were hung by the fire. The bags
of gold enabled the father to pay for the dowries of his daughters thus
averting their misfortune. This legend projected
an image of St. Nicholas as a gift giver. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of
children, scholars, virgins, sailors, and merchants. December 6 is his feast day. The eve of his
festivity was celebrated by secretly giving gifts.
The discovery of the vast American
continent by the Europeans also brought about the introduction of European
customs and culture to the New World. The Dutch emigrants who settled in New
York brought the tradition of gift giving on the feast of St. Nicholas who was
introduced as Sinter Klaas. The feast days of Saint Nicholas and Christmas Eve
are just close to each other. For this reason, the practice of gift giving on separate
occasions for both festivities was made to be done only once. And the gifts are
to be given on Christmas Eve.
A
shift from the traditional and Saintly St. Nicholas into an elfin figure was
made in the poem written in 1882 which was attributed to Clement Clark Moore.
It was entitled A Visit from Saint
Nicholas. In it he depicted St
Nicholas as a pipe-smoking jolly fat man riding on sleigh that was drawn by flying
reindeers. He came down to chimneys to distribute gifts. The names of the
reindeer were Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and
Blitzen. Later, one was added (Rudolph)
courtesy of the song Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer. American cartoonist Thomas Nast made a drawing of Santa
based on descriptions from the poem. He
portrayed Santa as a rotund, white-bearded man who was covered with sooth. He
had twinkling eyes, berry-like nose, merry dimples, rose cheeks, bow-like
mouth, and broad face and round belly. He was clad in fur and carried on his
back a bag stuffed with toys.
Later the image of Santa Claus has further
evolved into a man wearing attire that is all in red, and the name Saint
Nicholas has evolved into Santa Claus. The
celebration of Christmas has crossed continents and cultures. It has become a
secular tradition that is celebrated the world over. Indeed, the children will
be hanging their stockings or shoes on the wall or Christmas tree on Christmas
Eve expecting that Santa Claus will stuff them with toys. And Parents should
not let them down.
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