If you are from Wisconsin, today means something special to you. Today is Saint Nicholas Day. You, as a child, would wake up, run by your fireplace, where you left your shoe, and see that it now is filled with candy by none other than St. Nick. However, you would understand that St. Nick is not Santa Claus, St. Nick is an actual canonized saint, while Santa Claus is the guy who lives in the North Pole.
This is Saint Nick: http://www.stnicholasfestival.org.uk/
This is Santa Claus: http://www.santa-claus-clipart.com/
Santa Claus is not Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas is not Santa Claus. One guy comes to kids in Wisconsin on December 6th to put candy in your shoe. The other guy has flying reindeer, elves, and an obesity problem. Yes, I understand that the American tradition of Santa Claus comes from St. Nicholas, but for our intends and purposes, it must be recognized that they are not the same person in Christmastime Mythology.
The name "Santa Claus" comes as a corruption of "Sinterklaas" (Sint being the Dutch word for Saint.) In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas lives in Spain with his Moorish sidekick (portrayed by white guys in blackface) Zwart Piet (Black Pete), but right before St. Nicholas Day, the Jolly Old Bishop travels by steamship to a port in the Netherlands where kids wait at the docks cheering. If you have been a naughty child, Zwart Piet will take you back to Spain (Hide the children!). On the actual night of before the 6th, Sinterklaas rides from house to house on a horse and throws candy down the chimney in the shoes of children. Dutch candy, however, is not at all like American candy. If you are expecting sweetness, prepare to be disappointed, instead you get things like salty, rock-hard black licorice, gumdrops that taste like mouthwash, disks that look and taste like Play-Dough, and Gingerbread cookies that are filled with minty paste. I still have to acquire the taste.
I digress, Sinterklaas all makes sense. There are no elves, no operation on the Northpole, no undiscovered species of caribou. One must assume that this is the same Saint Nicholas that comes to Wisconsin, as well as other European countries on December 6th. It still leaves the question of where the other guy, the secular Santa Claus comes into the picture. My high school civics teacher proposed the question of what Saint Nick and Santa Claus' relationship was. Do they know each other? Are they brothers? What's going on?
My theory is this: Saint Nicholas is the actual saint. God gives him a free pass every year to leave Heaven and bring joy into the hearts of children. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Saint Nicholas manages to fill children's shoes just as how he dropped the dowry money into the stockings of those poor girls during his lifetime. Santa Claus, on the other hand, was an American man, probably one of German decent with the name of Klaus, that made a pact with Satan to live forever. Satan granted him eternal life and supernatural powers under the condition that 1. He place the title "Santa" in front of his name, innocent sounding, but actually an anagram for "Satan." 2. He must use his eternal life to rebel against God. Santa Klaus, decided to corrupt the Christian holiday of Christmas by usurping both St. Nicholas and the Jesus part of Christmas by giving kids cool toys to promote commercialism and cultural conformity. But he wouldn't give cool toys to everybody, no, he would give rich kids the good stuff and poor kids lame toys specifically to encourage class divisions. Santa Claus, as Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbes" correctly guessed, establishes his base on the North Pole to escape environmental and labor regulations, also because the UK's Father Christmas already set up shop in the Lapland region of Finland. Santa Claus funds his operation through corporate sponsors, including Coca-Cola and, for a time, Lucky Strike (http://www.seacoastnh.com/arts/santa.html), as well as numerous television and movie appearances.
Most of America has forgotten about the real St. Nick, but in Wisconsin, we keep the hope alive. There is a Saint Nick, and he carries a crosier, not a sack of video games and Bratz dolls!
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