Limelight:
Must be Santa
By
Lubna Abdel-Aziz
He is unmistakable! This jolly old man in the bright red suit, trimmed with fuzzy white fur; his chubby cheeks glowing, his pudgy nose wrinkling, his kindly eyes twinkling -- who else can he be but the legendary Santa Claus! This magical creature bearing millions of gifts for children of all ages, has captured our hearts, even in places altogether unfamiliar with Christmas. Santa Claus has gained in popularity during the last two centuries, and has been influential in transforming Christmas from a religious to a secular celebration worldwide.
No other figure has symbolised joy, excitement, good tidings and great expectations, as "this lovable quasi-deity". Though today there are two billion Christians, or 33 per cent of the world population -- and the number of Christian children is one third of those, 667 million -- Santa is a symbol of joy and generosity for all six billion of us.
Christian purists frown on the globalisation and commercialisation of Christmas, particularly on the god-like powers attributed to Santa Claus, deploring the fact that "he became more famous than Jesus Christ himself". But other moderates within the church believe "all children have the right to be fascinated and enchanted by the nurturing old myths and fables of their culture." In time, fantasies and myths grudgingly give way to the harsher realities. It is wise to preserve them for as long as we can.
The origin of the "Santa Claus" legend is believed to have developed from stories about a fourth century priest from Lycia, Anatolia in Asia Minor (now Turkey), known as St Nicholas. Historians know little about him, and folklore experts believe there is no valid reason that he ever existed. They propose his life story is nothing more than a recycling of old pagan myths, of gods and goddesses of the ancient world such as Poseidon from the Greeks, Neptune from the Romans and Hold Nickar from Teutonic mythology. Within the Christian church there is a belief that St Nicholas once lived in the province of Myra (240AD - c 350AD) where he later became Bishop. He was given the name Hagios Nikolaos, aka St Nicholaos of Myra, and many miracles are attributed to him. On a boat journey to Palestine, he is supposed to have extended his arms and stilled a violent sea, saving three drowning sailors. His love and generosity towards children remains his lasting legacy. He is known to have thrown gifts to children anonymously into their windows or laid them at their doorsteps. He is believed to have brought back to life several children who had been killed, and became Patron Saint for sailors and children. The most famous of his legendary generosity was towards a nobleman who had fallen on hard times and had no dowry for his three daughters. One night St Nicholas threw a sack of gold through a window of the nobleman's shabby castle, for one daughter's dowry. The next night he tossed another sack of gold for the second daughter. On the third night, the window was closed, so St Nicholas climbed onto the roof and dropped the sack down the chimney. The next day the gold was found in the stockings they had hung to dry by the fireplace, and a tradition was born. He is honoured as Patron Saint in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, Sicily, Switzerland and the Netherlands. To this day gifts are exchanged on 6 December in many countries St Nicholas' feast day.
During the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century St Nicholas was banished from most European countries and replaced by more secular figures assuming different names like Weihnachtsmann (Christmas Man) in Germany, Pére No‘l in France, Father Christmas in England, Papa No‘l in Spain, Father Frost in Russia. Today Santa Claus has taken over -- but what's in a name! The legend lives on.
The Puritans in the New World made it illegal to mention St Nicholas. Gifts, candles and Christmas carols were banned. When the sea-fairing Dutch immigrated to the New World in the 17th century, the figure of St Nicholas graced the ship's brow. They kept his tradition alive in the Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam (now New York). Their spelling for him was "Sint Nikolass", which became "Sinterklass", and later anglicised to Santa Claus. Most of his present looks are attributed to a description in a poem by the scholar Clement Clarke Moore, New York dentist and theology professor. In 1822 he wrote An Account of a Visit from St Nicholas to entertain his children on Christmas Eve. A copy of the poem was mailed by a friend to the Troy Sentinel of New York. It was published 23 December 1823 as The Night Before Christmas and became an immediate hit. Other papers and magazines quickly picked it up and published it regularly every Christmas. Fearing it might damage his reputation, Dr Moore, a classical scholar, did not acknowledge authorship until 1827. By then every child could recite the poem by heart and its imagery of an elfish Santa on a miniature sleigh with eight tiny reindeers has become an integral part of modern Santa lore.
It was in America that Santa began to put on weight. For centuries the image of a tall, slender, elegant bishop with flowing red robes and cascading white beard was perpetrated. In 1863 influential cartoonist Thomas Nast created a series of Santa images for Harper's Weekly magazine, completing the Santa image. These drawings, which continued through the 1890s, exhibited a gradual evolution in Santa's physique. From the rounded, diminutive, elf-like figure of Dr Moore's immortal poem, to the bearded, pot-bellied, rosy cheeked, jolly old man we are familiar with today (too many burgers and fries, no doubt!). But while his waistline continues to grow, so does his legend. His hearty Ho Ho's resonate with the human virtues of loving kindness.
"Is there really a Santa?", by age eight or nine every child eventually asks. In 1897 a letter arrived at The New York Sun from 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon pleading with the paper: "Please tell me the truth, is there really a Santa?" The editor in chief Francis P Church decided to respond to the letter himself, thereby creating a sensation. It became one of the most famous editorials in the history of journalism and presents the most moving testimonial for the legend of Santa Claus. We include some excerpts from the published response titled: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!
.........He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy......... Alas! How dreary would the world be if there were no Santa Claus!.........There would be no childlike faith, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.
Not believe in Santa Claus! Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can view the supernatural beauty beyond.........Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus? Thank god he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, maybe 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the hearts of childhood.
So if you too question whether Santa is real, be assured that he is. How can the most recognised and the most loved figure in the world not be real!
And you had better be on your best behaviour, for at the North Pole right now,
He's making a list -- checking it twice
'Gonna find out whose naughty and nice
And you can be certain, by whichever name you call him,
* Santa Claus is comin' to town.
