December 22, 2009

• The Ancestry and Evolution of Santa Claus

  

  Santa Claus has been evolving for more than the seventeen centuries or so since the lifetime of the Catholic saint whose name has been corrupted and  attached to this “right jolly old elf.”  As we know him today, his story is an agglomeration of myths about the legendary gift-givers of several cultures.  One of Santa’s “ancestors”, the one who lent him his name in one corrupt form or another such as Sinterklaas and Sinter Claes, is Saint Nicholas of Bari, or, some say, of Myra.  He has been confused or agglomerated with, and has gained fame at the expense of, as many as seven other churchmen named Nicholas.

  

  “St. Nicholas was born in 271 AD and died around December 6, 342 or 343 AD near the town of Myra in Asia Minor (Turkey).  He performed many good deeds and was a friend to the poor and helpless, and upon his death, myths soon sprang up about him all around the Mediterranean Sea. He was reputed to be able to calm the raging seas, rescue desperate sailors, help the poor and downtrodden, and save children. He was soon named as the patron saint of sailors, and when Myra was overthrown, his bones were transported by sailors to Bari, a port in Italy, where a tomb was built over the grave and became the center of honor for St. Nicholas. From here the legend spread on around to the Atlantic Coast of Europe and the North Sea to become a European holiday tradition regardless of religion.”  (according to the Kids’ Domain)

  Fordham University’s online Mediaeval Sourcebook translates the story of Nicholas’s death from Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend (written ca.1275, pub. 1470):

  “And when it pleased our Lord to have him depart out this world, he prayed our Lord that he would send him his angels; and inclining his head he saw the angels come to him, whereby he knew well that he should depart, and began this holy psalm: In te domine speravi, unto, in manus tuas, and so saying:  Lord, into thine hands I commend my spirit, he rendered up his soul and died, the year of our Lord three hundred and forty- three, with great melody sung of the celestial company.  And when he was buried in a tomb of marble, a fountain of oil sprang out from the head unto his feet; and unto this day holy oil issueth out of his body, which is much available to the health of sicknesses of many men.  And after him in his see succeeded a man of good and holy life, which by envy was put out of his bishopric.  And when he was out of his see the oil ceased to run, and when he was restored again thereto, the oil ran again.”

  

  “The great veneration with which this saint has been honored for many ages and the number of altars and churches which have been everywhere dedicated in his memory are testimonials to [the church's touting] his holiness and of [Catholics' belief in] the glory which he enjoys with God.”  (source:catholic.org)   [Bracketed asides are mine.]

  One part of his legend states that he once took pity on a young woman, or on two or three sisters,  either orphan(s) or daughter(s) of a poor man or of a poor widow, and, to save her or them from a life or lives of prostitution, he sneaked around one night and tossed a bag or bags of gold through an open window or down a chimney, to provide a dowry or dowries so that they could be honorably married off.  The gold is said to have landed in her/their shoe(s) or in stockings hung by the fire, originating the Christmas tradition of gifts in shoes or stockings.

  

  “A Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, attended the First Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 (Nicene Creed establishing the trinity). That is all the first hand evidence known about Nicholas.”[emphasis added - This and other italicised quotes below are from B.K. Swartz.]  …Nicholas “was the patron saint of sailors and navigators and, hence, admired at the Dutch maritime center of Amsterdam, who made him a hero.”
  

  

  St. Nicholas and the Low German god Woden became syncretized as a single figure. Prior to this St. Nicholas was portrayed as a youth with black trimmed beard. The Dutch also celebrated Woden (better known as the Norse Odin) who wore a full white beard, had a magic cloak and dispensed gifts to children. Woden was an Iron Age Indo-European god who rode a horse. Children placed their shoes and hay (to feed the horse) near the fireplace. Eventually Woden merges into St. Nicholas, corrupted as Sinter Claes.”
  

  

  
  “Vladimir Duke of Russia (Kiev) visited and was baptized at Constantinople in 1003. Upon returning to Russia he made St. Nicholas his country’s patron saint (this may have been a composite with St. Nicholas of Penora who died in the 7th century). He soon becomes associated with an arctic landscape and was popular with the Lapps and Samoyeds. This may be the result of the syncretization of St. Nicholas with the Russian winter folk spirit Father Frost. Father Frost has a long white beard, is dressed in furs and drives a sled drawn by reindeer.”

  

  Father Frost’s companion is Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden.

  After Myra fell to Islam, Italian sailors moved Nicholas’s remains to Bari in Apulia (Sicily) in 1087.  In 1442, Spain conquered that area, and in 1556 Holland was united with Spain.  The mythical St. Nick then began vacationing in Spain with the other bishops.  Being overwhelmed with the task of keeping track of who’s been naughty or nice, he employed a Moorish helper Black Pete, or Zwart Piet, as his clerk.

  Santa Claus: is fat
  Sinterklaas: is not

  Santa Claus: comes from the North Pole
  Sinterklaas: comes from Spain (Spanje)

  Santa Claus: rides a sleigh with reindeer
  Sinterklaas: has a boat and a white horse

  Santa Claus: has elves to help him
  Sinterklaas: has Zwarte Pieten

  Santa Claus: puts things in children’s stockings
  Sinterklaas: puts things in children’s shoes
  tinbergen.nl 

  

  “In function Black Pete serves as a Dutch non-pagan version of the German knecht (servant) Ruprecht (Robert), a black sprite helping St. Nicholas as a disciplinarian of children. Ruprecht “appears in shaggy, sack on back (like later Santa Claus) and rod in hand” in the 16th and 17th centuries (Grimm, op. cit., p. 504, fn., compiled before 1844). The English counterpart of knecht Ruprecht, Robin (Robert) goodfellow is documented as early as 1489 had a loud laugh of Ho Ho Ho (W.J. Thoms 1839, in Grimm, op. cit., p. 502). Indeed numerous supernatural “little people” were associated with St. Nicholas at this time in German folklore, contributing to his eventual elfin status and collaboration with elf helpers.”

  After the Reformation of the 17th century, many Protestants no longer accepted St. Nicholas as their Gift-Giver due to his ties with the Catholic Church.  Then secular Gift-Givers started to appear throughout Europe.  In Italy, modern children believe in Santa Claus, but they don’t write to him to ask for gifts.  Instead, they write to La Befana

  

   

  Pelznichol AKA Bellsniggle is an elfin German figure who came to America with the Pennsylvania Dutch and merged with the Christkindlein or Christ Child, into Kris Kringle.

  

  Even into the first half of the nineteenth century, when Clement Clarke Moore or Henry Livingston, Jr. wrote A Visit from Saint Nicholas, the poem that begins, “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” Santa was one of the little people:  “He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf.  …a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer.  With a little old driver….”

  
  

  Through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth he was really confused.   Depending on who drew him, he was sometimes elfin, sometimes human-sized or even oversized, fat or thin, wearing furs, or green or blue or purple.  After the Civil War he began settling down into human size. The elves became his helpers.  Since 1920, he has been wearing red and white.

  

  In 1907, a children’s book printed the image below, an artist’s vision of the future Santa of 2007:

   

  In 2007, the original painting of the Norman Rockwell cover below for the Saturday Evening Post was sold by Christie’s for 2.17 million dollars.
  

  

  Some would say that the CocaCola ads have given us our current image of Santa.

  

  Snopes.com says it ain’t so.  Thomas Nast’s 1881 “Merry Old Santa Claus” was probably the inspiration for Coke’s later version of Santa.

  

  What Coke ads and other mass media images, and the proliferation of department store Santas, have done is to standardize the image and end all that confusion over what Santa looks like.

  Again, I apologize for the proliferation of itty bitty pictures.  If their number annoys you, be assured that I made them small to try and compensate for that.  If their size annoys you, then your internet connection is surely faster than mine.

  I have a little gift for you.  Just click on it and enjoy.

  

  • 2:32 pm
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