Santa Claus

From Wikinfo

Jump to: navigation, search

[[fr:P�re No�l]]

For places in the United States with this name see Santa Claus, Arizona, Santa Claus, Georgia and Santa Claus, Indiana.

Santa Claus (also known as Father Christmas) is the American and British variant of the European folk myth of Saint Nicholas, explaining the source of Christmas presents given to children on Christmas Day. The Japanese also observe Santa Claus in Christmas, although the holiday is different.

Amongst many adults the nonexistence of Claus is a given, but many young children believe strongly in his existence. A majority of parents, at least in English-speaking households that celebrate Christmas, either actively attempt to convince their children of Santa's existence, or at least keep the source of their children's presents a secret from them and so fail to disprove the myth. Children who believe in the existence of Claus often tend to lose such beliefs by early primary school, as their ability to distinguish fantasy from reality improves and older children disillusion them.

Conventionally, he is portrayed as a kindly, round bellied, merry bespectacled man in a red suit trimmed with white fur, with a long white beard. On Christmas eve, he rides in his flying sleigh (pulled by reindeer) from house to house to give presents to children. During the rest of the year, he lives at the Finnish Lapland, North Pole, Dalarna or in Sweden (traditions vary) together with his wife, Mrs. Claus, and his elves who serve as his toy production staff. Traditionally, the names of his reindeer are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen with Rudolph being the lead reindeer.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, has been immortalized in a song which is frequently played at Christmas. The other names, outside Rudolph, were invented in a poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas", ascribed to Clement Moore, although there is some question as to his authorship. It is suspected that the names Donner and Blitzen come from the German phrase Donner und Blitze which means Thunder and Lightning. An alternative explanation is that Donder is the original name of the seventh reindeer, as Donder en bliksem is Dutch for Thunder and Lightning. The reindeer are traditionally pictured with antlers, although true reindeer shed their antlers in the winter.

Many Christian churches dislike the secular focus on Santa and the materialist focus that present-giving gives to the holiday. They would prefer that focus be given to the birth of Jesus, their nominal reason for the Christmas celebration. It should be noted that the festivities at this time of year are predated by the pagan Yule festivals which were subsumed within Christianity.

A history of Santa Claus was written by L. Frank Baum, the same man who wrote the Wizard of Oz. However, the historical basis for Santa Claus was Saint Nicholas of Myra.

Historically, one of the first artists to capture Santa Claus' image as we know him today was Thomas Nast, a cartoonist of the 19th century. In 1863, a picture of Santa appeared in Harper's Weekly by Nast. The Coca-Cola Company featured in its advertising a Santa Claus designed by artist Haddon Sundblom, which helped to popularize the design of Santa that Moore and Nast originated. To this day Santa Claus still appears on Coca-Cola products each year around Christmastime.

When the Dutch still owned the land that later became New York, they brought the Saint Nicholas' eve legend with them to the Americas; however without the red mantle and other symbols. Note that in Dutch, the feast is called 'sinterklaas feest', it celebrates the birthday of sinterklaas during sinterklaasavond (the day before) december 5th or in Belgium at december 6th.

Sinterklaas was Americanized to Santa Claus, and was at first pictured as a thick bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat. Santa Claus appeared in various colored costumes, but red soon became popular after he appeared wearing such on an 1885 Christmas card. The horse was converted to reindeers and a sleigh. The black peters (which are in fact Moorish slaves) were converted to elves, and in an attempt to move the origin of the festivities away from their pagan background to a more Christian one, the date was moved a few weeks to the celebrated day of the birth of Jesus, Christmas.

Santa's image was further modernized by the Coca-Cola company, who at the turn of the 20th Century featured the character in a variety of advertising campaigns. These campaigns helped establish a "uniform" Santa character, whereas prior to this his appearance and costume had varied from artist to artist.

Unlike the Santa in the United States and the United Kingdom, the Japanese Santa Claus does not carry any religious connotations. Christmas is mainly a time for lovers to exchange gifts. New Year's Day is a more important holiday in Japan.

Bibliography

Siefker, Phyillis: Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men. The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas, Spanning 50,000 Years. Jefferson (North Carolina): McFarland, 1996. (Website about the book.)

See also

References

Retrieved from "http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/Santa_Claus"