Santa Claus
OriginsEarly Christian origins
A medieval fresco depicting St Nicholas from the
Boyana Church, near
Sofia,
BulgariaSaint Nicholas of Myra is the primary inspiration for the Christian figure of Santa Claus. He was a 4th century Christian
bishop of
Myra in
Lycia, a province of the
Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor, in particular presenting the three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with
dowries so that they would not have to become
prostitutes. He was very religious from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity. In
Europe (more precisely
the Netherlands,
Belgium,
Austria and
Germany) he is still portrayed as a bearded
bishop in
canonical robes. The
relics of St. Nicholas were transported to
Bari in southern
Italy by some enterprising Italian
merchants;
[8] a
basilica was constructed in 1087 to house them and the area became a
pilgrimage site for the devout. Saint Nicholas became claimed as a
patron saint of many diverse groups, from
archers and children to
pawnbrokers and prostitutes
[9]. He is also the patron saint of both
Amsterdam and
Moscow.
[10].
Influence of Germanic paganism and folklore
An 1886 depiction of the indigenous
Germanic god Odin by
Georg von Rosen.
Numerous parallels have been drawn surrounding the figure of
Odin, a major god amongst the
Germanic Peoples prior to their
Christianization. Since many of these elements are unrelated to Christianity, there are numerous theories regarding the
pagan origins of various customs of the holiday stemming from areas where the Germanic peoples were Christianized and retained elements of their indigenous traditions, surviving in various forms into modern depictions of Santa Claus.
[11]Odin was sometimes recorded, at the native
Germanic holiday of
Yule, as leading a great hunting party through the sky.
[12] Two books from
Iceland, the
Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century, and the
Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by
Snorri Sturluson, describe
Odin as riding an eight-legged horse named
Sleipnir that could leap great distances, giving rise to comparisons to
Santa Claus' reindeer.
[13]Odin's appearance was often similar to that of Saint Nicholas, being depicted as an old, mysterious man with a beard.[
citation needed]
According to Phyllis Siefker, children would place their boots, filled with
carrots,
straw or
sugar, near the chimney for Odin's flying
horse,
Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir's food with gifts or
candy [14]. This practice survived in Germany,
Belgium and the Netherlands after the adoption of Christianity and became associated with Saint Nicholas as a result of the process of
Christianization and can be still seen in the modern practice of the hanging of stockings at the chimney in some homes. Children still place their straw filled shoes or stockings by the chimney every winter night, and are rewards with candy and gifts.[
citation needed]
This practice in turn came to the
United States through the Dutch colony of
New Amsterdam prior to the British seizure in the 17th century, and evolved into the hanging of socks or
stockings at the fireplace. In many regions of Austria and former Austro-Hungarian Italy (
Friuli, city of
Trieste) children are given sweets and gifts on Saint Nicholas's Day (San Niccolò in Italian), in accordance with the Catholic calendar, December the 6th.
Numerous other influences from the pre-Christian Germanic winter celebrations have continued into modern Christmas celebrations such as the
Christmas ham,
Yule Goat,
Yule logs and potentially the
Christmas tree.
Pre-Christian Alpine traditions
Main article:
Pre-Christian Alpine traditionsOriginating from
Pre-Christian Alpine traditions and influenced to extents by later Christianization, the
Krampus (a goat-faced eminence) is represented as a
Companion of Saint Nicholas. Traditionally, young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December and particularly in the evening of
December 5 and roam the streets frightening children (and adults) with rusty chains and bells.
Dutch folklore
Further information:
Sinterklaas and
Saint NicholasSinterklaas in 2007.
In the
Netherlands Saint Nicolas (often called "De Goede Sint" — "The Friendly Saint") is now aided by helpers commonly known as
Zwarte Piet ("Black Peter").
The folklore of Saint Nicolas has many parallels with the Germanic mythology. Saint Nicolas has many resemblances with
Odin, like the beard, hat and spear (nowadays a staff) and the cloth bag held by the servants to capture naughty children. Both Saint Nicolas and Odin ride white horses that can fly through the air. The white eight-legged steed of Odin is named
Sleipnir. The letters made of candy given by the Zwarte Pieten to the children are reminiscent of the fact that Odin ‘invented’ the
rune letters. The poems made during the celebration and the songs the children sing has to do with the fact that Odin was the god of the arts of poetry.
On the origins of the helper there are various explanations. The oldest explanation is that the helpers symbolize the two ravens
Hugin and
Munin who informed Odin on what was going on. In later stories the helper depicts the defeated
devil. The devil is defeated by either
Odin or Odin's helper
Nörwi, the black father of the night. Nörwi is usually depicted with the same staff of birch (Dutch: "roe") as Zwarte Piet.
Another, more modern, story is that Saint Nicolas liberated an Ethiopian slave boy called 'Piter' (from
Saint Peter) from a
Myra market, and the boy was so gracious he decided to stay with Saint Nicolas as a helper. In Belgium Zwarte Piet is still called "Pieter baas", derived from 'Piter'. With the influx of immigrants to the Netherlands starting in the late 1950's, this story is felt by some to be racist
[15]. Nowadays Zwarte Piet has become a modern servant who have black faces because they climb through chimneys and get blackened by the
soot from the fire. The tools they held (cloth bag and staff of birch) are chimney cleaning tools.
[16]Until the second world war Saint Nicolas was only helped by one servant. When the Canadians liberated the Netherlands in 1945, they reinstated the celebrations of Sinterklaas for the children. Unaware of the traditions, the Canadians thought that if one Zwarte Piet was fun, several Zwarte Pieten is even more fun. Ever since Saint Nicolas is helped by a group of Zwarte Pieten.
Presents given during this feast are often accompanied by poems, sometimes fairly basic, sometimes quite elaborate pieces of art that mock events in the past year relating to the recipient (who is thus at the receiving end in more than one sense). The gifts themselves may be just an excuse for the wrapping, which can also be quite elaborate. The more serious gifts may be reserved for the next morning. Since the giving of presents is Sinterklaas's job, presents are traditionally not given at Christmas in the Netherlands, but commercialism is starting to tap into this market.
The Zwarte Pieten are roughly to the Dutch Saint Nicolas what the elves are to America's Santa Claus. According to tradition, the saint has a Piet for every function: there are navigation Pieten to navigate the steamboat from Spain to Holland, or acrobatic Pieten for climbing up the roofs to stuff presents through the chimney, or to climb through themselves. Throughout the years many stories have been added, mostly made up by parents to keep children's belief in Saint Nicolas intact and to discourage misbehaviour. In most cases the Pieten are quite lousy at their job, such as the navigation Piet (Dutch "wegwijs piet") pointing in the wrong direction. This is often used to provide some simple comedy in the annual parade of Saint Nicolas coming to the Netherlands, and can also be used to laud the progress of children at school by having the Piet give the wrong answer to, for example, a simple mathematical question like 2+2, so that the child in question is (or can be) persuaded to give the right answer.
Santa Claus, as known in the US (white beard, red and white outfit, etc.), is an entirely other person, called (de) Kerstman (trans. (the) Christmasman. Although Sinterklaas is the predominant celebration in the Netherlands in December (36% of the population only gives presents on Sinterklaas day), Christmas is used by another fifth of the Dutch population to give presents (21% gives only presents on Christmas). 26% Of the Dutch population give presents on both days.
[17]
Modern origins
"Scrooge's third Visitor", a colorized version of the original illustration by
John Leech made for
Charles Dickens's
novel A Christmas Carol (1843).
Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history and folklore merged with the British character Father Christmas to create the character known to Britons and Americans as Santa Claus. Father Christmas dates back at least as far as the 17th century in Britain, and pictures of him survive from that era, portraying him as a well-nourished bearded man dressed in a long, green, fur-lined robe. He typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, and was reflected in the "Ghost of Christmas Present" in
Charles Dickens's
A Christmas Carol.
The name Santa Claus is derived[
citation needed] from Sinterklaas, the
Dutch name for the character based on St. Nicholas. He is also known there by the name of Sint Nicolaas which explains the use of the two fairly dissimilar names Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas or St. Nick[
citation needed].
Main article:
TomteFolk tale depiction of Father Christmas riding on a
goat. Perhaps[
citation needed] an evolved version of the Swedish
Tomte.
In other countries, the figure of Saint Nicholas was also blended with local folklore. As an example of the still surviving
pagan imagery, in
Nordic countries the original bringer of gifts at Christmas time was the
Yule Goat, a somewhat startling figure with horns.
In the 1840s however, an elf in Nordic folklore called "Tomte" or "Nisse" started to deliver the Christmas presents in
Denmark. The Tomte was portrayed as a short, bearded man dressed in gray clothes and a red hat. This new version of the age-old folkloric creature was obviously inspired by the Santa Claus traditions that were now spreading to Scandinavia. By the end of the 19th century this tradition had also spread to
Norway and
Sweden, replacing the Yule Goat. The same thing happened in Finland, but there the more human figure retained the Yule Goat name. But even though the tradition of the Yule Goat as a bringer of presents is now all but extinct, a straw goat is still a common Christmas decoration in all of Scandinavia.
American origins
In the British colonies of
North America and later the
United States, British and Dutch versions of the gift-giver merged further. For example, in
Washington Irving's History of New York, (1809), Sinterklaas was Americanized into "Santa Claus" but lost his bishop's apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat. Irving's book was a
lampoon of the Dutch culture of New York, and much of this portrait is his joking invention.
Modern ideas of Santa Claus seemingly became
canon after the publication of the
poem "
A Visit From St. Nicholas" (better known today as "The Night Before Christmas") in the
Troy, New York, Sentinel on
December 23,
1823. In this poem Santa is established as a heavyset individual with eight reindeer (who are named for the first time). One of the first artists to define Santa Claus' modern image was
Thomas Nast, an American
cartoonist of the 19th century. In 1863, a picture of Santa illustrated by Nast appeared in
Harper's Weekly.
Thomas Nast immortalized Santa Claus with an illustration for the
January 3,
1863, issue of
Harper's Weekly.
In the late 19th century a group of
Sami people moved from
Finnmark in
Norway to
Alaska, together with 500 reindeer to teach the
Inuit to herd reindeer. The Lomen Company then used several of the Sami together with reindeer in a commercial campaign. Reindeer pulled sleds with a Santa, and one Sami leading each reindeer. The American commercial Santa Claus, coming from the North Pole with reindeer was born.
[18]Later popularization was
L. Frank Baum's
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, a
1902 children's book. Much of Santa Claus's mythos was not set in stone at the time, leaving Baum to give his "Neclaus" (Necile's Little One) a wide variety of immortal support, a home in the Laughing Valley of Hohaho, and ten reindeer which could not fly, but leapt in enormous, flight-like bounds. Claus's
immortality was earned, much like his title ("Santa"), decided by a vote of those naturally immortal. Also established Claus's motives: a happy childhood among immortals. When Ak, Master Woodsman of the World, exposes him to the misery and poverty of children in the outside world, he strives to find a way to bring joy into the lives of all children, and eventually invents toys as a principal means.
Images of Santa Claus were further cemented through
Haddon Sundblom's depiction of him for
The Coca-Cola Company's Christmas advertising. The popularity of the image spawned
urban legends that Santa Claus was in fact invented by Coca-Cola or that Santa wears red and white because those are the Coca-Cola colors. In fact, Coca-Cola was not even the first
soft drink company to utilize the modern image Santa Claus in its advertising –
White Rock Beverages used Santa in advertisements for its
ginger ale in
1923 after first using him to sell
mineral water in
1915. Even though Coca-Cola was not the first to do this, their massive campaign was one of the main reasons for why Santa Claus ended up depicted as wearing red and white, in contrast to the variety of colours he wore prior to the campaign.
[19][20]A man dressed up as Santa Claus
fundraising for
Volunteers of America on the
sidewalk of street in
Chicago, Illinois, in 1902. He is wearing a mask with a beard attached. DN-0001069, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.
The image of Santa Claus as a benevolent character became reinforced with its association with charity and
philanthropy, particularly organizations such as the
Salvation Army. Volunteers dressed as Santa Claus typically became part of
fundraising drives to aid needy families at Christmas time.
In 1889, the poet
Katherine Lee Bates created a wife for Santa,
Mrs. Claus, in the poem "Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride." The 1956 popular song by
George Melachrino, "Mrs. Santa Claus," helped standardize and establish the character and role in the popular imagination.
In some images of the early 20th century, Santa was depicted as personally making his toys by hand in a small workshop like a craftsman. Eventually, the idea emerged that he had numerous elves responsible for making the toys, but the toys were still handmade by each individual elf working in the traditional manner.
The concept of Santa Claus continues to inspire writers and artists, such as in author
Seabury Quinn's 1948
novel Roads which draws from historical legends to tell the story of Santa and the origins of Christmas. Other modern additions to the "mythology" of Santa include
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the ninth and lead reindeer immortalized in a
Gene Autry song, written by a
Montgomery Ward copywriter.
