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Here Comes Santa: How the Rotund, Jolly Gift-Giver Came to Be
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12087 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1987 |
1,587 Words |
| Author
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Rosemary G. Rennicke
Rosemary G. Rennicke is a freelance writer from Buckingham,
Pennsylvania, who specializes in interior design and antiques. |
Say "Santa", and the image of a white-bearded, red-suited, jolly old elf is evoked. From department stores to street parades and greeting cards to tree ornaments, the rotund gift-giver is an unmistakable Christmas presence. Yet, it has taken him seventeen centuries and three continents to arrive.
Our modern Santa Claus is a composite character: evolved from Teutonic gods, minor Roman deities, pagan feast figures, cartoon and literary inventions, and a Near Eastern saint. The latter - a Greek Christian named Nicholas - is the person who set the myth in motion. Born around A.D. 270 in the area that is now Turkey, Nicholas was a deeply religious child who joined the priesthood at the age nineteen.
Among the many good works and miracles that earned him sainthood was his generosity toward an impoverished nobleman's three daughters. The young women were to be sold presumably into prostitution, for want of dowries. Nicholas heard of their plight and secretly tossed three bags of gold through their bedroom window, which magically landed in stockings hung to dry by the fireplace.
The saint was later adopted as patron and protector for diverse groups: sailors, tailors, maidens, travelers, and pawnbrokers (who took the three sacks of gold as their trade symbol). Throughout the Middle Ages, the cult of Saint Nicholas spread across the Byzantine Empire; north to Russia and west to continental Europe. Bishops named churches for him, stained-glass windows told of his life, miracle plays reenacted his deeds, and hymns sang his praises. He was the most revered figure in Christendom until the sixteenth-century Reformation Protestants decried
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