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St Nicholas to Santa Clause
Posted on Thursday, December 08 @ 15:16:28 EST by shushan |
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I was wondering about the traditions of Santa Clause, and thought you all may find it of interest……
The original St Nicholas lived in Turkey during the 4th Century. He was known for working miracles with children, and when he died, was given a feast day, 6th December.
About the same time, Pope Julius I wanted to decide the date that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated, in the hope that the Pagan festivals would be Christianised. So St Nicholas’s feast day was moved to 25th December, and the connection was made.
A tradition was developed that St Nicholas would visit on Christmas Eve when children would leave sweets and fruits to welcome him. His popularity faded throughout Europe except for in Holland, where he became know as Sinta Klass.
Dutch settlers came to America, and during a period of interest in their customs, adopted Sinta Klass as Santa Clause.
An artist, Alexander Anderson was commissioned around 1810 to paint Santa Clause. He was depicted, still as a religious figure, but with the addition of presents to fill the children’s stockings.
In 1822, Clement Moore wrote the poem A Visit from St Nicholas. The poem illustrated the new traditions and wove in aspects of Norse and German Legends, which depicted stories of a happy little elf-like man presiding over midwinter pagan festivals. In the poem SC is a tiny man with a sleigh pulled by reindeer, and is flown house to house. Moores poem has been rewritten several times and is now known as The Night before Christmas.
As time went by, more and more was added to the Santa Clause legend. A cartoonist, Thomas Nast, depicted Santa living at the North Pole with a workshop for building toys and a large book filled with the names of children who had been naughty or nice.
In the 19th century, Santa wore outfits in purple, green, blue and red. By the 20th century, a well known fizzy drinks company adopted Santa in red and the image we know now was fixed.
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