When did the tradition of Santa Claus begin?

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Santa Claus

Western fairy tale character. Originated from European folklore. It is said that he is an old man with a white beard wearing a red robe and black boots who goes to every house to distribute gifts to children on Christmas Eve. Often parents explain to their children that the gifts they receive at Christmas are from Santa Claus.

The legend of Santa Claus

The legend of Santa Claus appeared in Scandinavia thousands of years ago. In Nordic mythology, Odin is the god of wisdom, art, poetry, and war. In the cold winter, he rides on his eight-legged horse and gallops to the ends of the earth, punishing evil, promoting good, and distributing gifts. At the same time, his son, the God of Thunder, dressed in red and using lightning as a weapon, fought fiercely with the gods of ice and snow in darkness, and finally defeated the cold. According to pagan legend, Santa Claus is a descendant of the god Odin. There are also legends that Santa Claus came from St. Nicholas, so Santa Claus is also called St. Nicholas. Because most of these stories promote the spirit of Christianity, their origins and storylines are mostly forgotten, but Santa Claus remains in people's spiritual world forever.

Every Christmas (Christmas is the day when Jesus, the God in Western Christian legends, was born, equivalent to the Chinese Spring Festival), Santa Claus rides on a reindeer, and the Holy Child descends to the world holding a Christmas tree. As things changed, writers and artists began to describe Santa Claus as the image we are familiar with today in red clothes and a white beard. At the same time, different countries and cultures also have different interpretations of Santa Claus. In Germany, legend has it that he dressed as a holy boy and put nuts and apples in children's shoes. He roams around in a two-wheeled carriage and observes people's behavior, especially children. If he behaves well, he will get apples, nuts, candies and many other prizes. Bad boys get a whip. Parents suddenly adopted this legend to encourage their children to be obedient. It greatly surpasses the New Year and becomes a national festival. Santa Claus has become a favorite symbol and tradition of Christmas. The image of the jolly old elf driving his reindeer and pulling a sleigh filled with toys and gifts from door to door to deliver gifts to every child has been deeply etched in people's memory.

Santa Nicholas

The first theory

Santa Claus wearing a thick red and white robe was not actually born in the cold North Pole Circle, but the town of Denley on the Mediterranean coast, so if he appeared in his hometown wearing this outfit, he would definitely be unbearable in the heat.

It is reported that the story of Santa Claus is derived from the religious figure Saint Nicholas. In the fourth century AD, he served as the bishop of Denre, a small town in Turkey where the sun always shines. He was a philanthropist. Later, people added some mythical stories to his life story, and finally it evolved into the band that everyone is familiar with today. Santa Claus with gifts and smile.

Legend has it that there was a poor family in the town who had no money to buy dowries for their three daughters. When Saint Nicholas found out about it, he threw a bag of gold into the family through the window one night. , and the next day he lost another bag. But on the third day, the windows were closed, so Saint Nicholas had to climb up to the roof and drop the bag of gold from the chimney, which happened to fall into the socks that the girl had put in to dry in the fireplace. This eventually evolved into hanging socks on Christmas Eve. , the tradition of waiting for Santa Claus to deliver gifts.

The second theory

Santa Claus’s original name was Nicholas. He was born in the city of Badala in Asia Minor in the fourth century. His family was wealthy and his parents were very wealthy. An ardent Catholic, unfortunately his parents died young. When Nicholas grew up, he donated all his rich property to the poor and pitiful people. He became a monk, dedicated himself to the church, and served the society throughout his life. Nicholas later became a priest and was promoted to bishop. He did a lot of charity work throughout his life, and his favorite thing was helping the poor in secret. Santa Claus was his later nickname. The name came from the story of him secretly sending money to help three girls.

It is said that not far from Nicholas, there lived three beautiful girls, they were twenty, eighteen, and sixteen years old respectively. My father was a poor scholar who often relied on loans to make a living. Once, because he was unable to repay a debt, he had no choice but to sell his beautiful and healthy third daughter to the creditor and take her to Africa to work as a maid. When the three daughters found out about this, they hugged each other and cried sadly. You can imagine the sadness in the family. Nicholas learned about this and ran to their home to comfort them. At night, Nicholas filled three stockings of gold and secretly hung them in the windows of the three girls. They had gold and paid off their father's debt, and the third daughter was freed from the fate of being a maid. The next day was Christmas, and they knew it was Nicholas who had done the good deed, so they invited him to celebrate and thank him. Every Christmas from now on, these three girls will tell this story. The children were very envious after hearing this and hoped that Santa Claus would come and give him a sock gift.

Later, the smart parents, who didn’t know which family, began to give their children a sock gift in the name of Santa Claus. As a result, this habit became popular throughout Europe and the United States. Nicholas later became the bishop of Mira. Because he was also an orphan when he was a child, he became a special protector of orphans. After his death, the church canonized him as a saint. His spirit of caring for orphans and helping the poor has been passed down with Christmas.

Later, many kind-hearted people in the world followed Nicholas's spirit of kindness and donated a large number of items, using the name of Santa Claus to bring love to the poor, the poor old people and orphans. Every year when Christmas comes, Santa Claus always appears all over the world, bringing warmth and happiness to thousands of children, lonely old people, and abandoned children. We hope that all our friends in the world who live a prosperous life will be Santa Claus, not just at Christmas, but even in ordinary times, and spread the light of love to every corner of the world to the best of their ability.

The American version of Santa Claus

The American version of Santa Claus, his image and name come from a Dutch legend, which was brought to New York by immigrants in the 17th century.

"Santa Claus" appeared in American newspapers in early 1773. This was the first time that best-selling American author Washington Irving introduced information about the Dutch version of Nicholas (Santa Claus) as an American. According to New York History, Irving wrote in an 1809 newspaper under the pseudonym Diedrich, describing the arrival of Nicholas on horseback (without Black Pete accompanying him).

Different legends about Santa Claus in the northern hemisphere

The origin of Santa Claus goes back to the last century. As we know, he is a combination of different legends and mysterious human figures.

The predecessor of Santa Claus was Bishop Nicholas of Izmir, a port city in western Turkey. He lived in the 4th century AD and was a kind, generous and rich man who was very good to children. The Orthodox Church respects Nicholas as a miracle worker.

In central and northern Germany, Nicholas was known as "Santa Claus", in the UK as "Father Christmas", and later as "Santa Claus" by Dutch immigrants in the United States.

Children want to know where Santa Claus lives and when will they receive their presents? The answer is usually that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole and produces Christmas gifts in his workshop. In 1927, Markus Rautio, a children's program host known to children as "Uncle Markus", revealed for the first time that Santa Claus lived in Korvatunturi, Lapland.

An ear similar to that of a hare was found in Korvatunturi, located in the eastern border region of Finland. It is actually Santa Claus's ear, which is used to listen to children's wishes. Scandinavian legends tell the history of Santa Claus and his helper elf.

At the end of the last century, different legends about Santa Claus in the northern hemisphere were summarized into the same version - the old man with a white beard distributes gifts to children and then returns to Kornatunturi in Finnish Lapland.

Since 1950, Santa Claus has stayed happily in Napapiiri, communicating with children and young people in addition to Christmas. More and more people are visiting Santa Claus regularly. In 1985, he built his own workshop. Santa Claus comes to the office every day to listen to children's Christmas wishes and communicate with them. Santa Claus Village is Santa's main post office and receives letters from children around the world to Santa.

The unknown side of Santa Claus

In order to achieve the purpose of controlling the parishioners, the church used a Christian figure, Saint Nicholas, to replace a supernatural pagan to distribute gifts and rewards. It is extremely ironic that the bloodthirsty Tomptine is actually associated with a Christian saint. At first Tomptine did not lose his savage and evil character, and in parts of Germany Saint Nicholas was known as "Nicholas the Bell Bearer" because he walked into houses with bells and chains, and Tomptim woke sleeping children and dragged them away. He would get out of bed and ask them questions about Christian doctrine. If the children couldn't answer, he would beat them with a stick. Saint Nicholas would also throw coals at them until the children bled, and then Tomptine would suck the blood from their wounds. If the child answered the question correctly, Saint Nicholas would reluctantly reward him with an apple or a piece of sweetmeat.

It is said that Santa Claus appeared in Scandinavia thousands of years ago. Odin, the god of wisdom, art, poetry, and war in Nordic mythology, rides on his eight-legged horse in the cold winter and gallops to the ends of the earth, punishing evil, promoting good, and distributing gifts. At the same time, his son, the God of Thunder, dressed in red and used lightning as a weapon, fought fiercely with the ice and snow gods in darkness, and finally defeated the cold. According to pagan legend, Santa Claus is a descendant of the god Odin. It is also said that Santa Claus came from St. Nicholas, so Santa Claus is also called St. Nicholas. It is said that he was originally the bishop of the city of Myra in Asia Minor, named Saint Nicholas. He was revered as a saint after his death. He was an old man with a white beard wearing a red robe and a red hat. Every Christmas he comes from the north on a sleigh pulled by a deer, enters every house through the chimney, puts Christmas gifts in socks and hangs them on the children's beds or in front of the stove. Therefore, when Westerners celebrate Christmas, parents put Christmas gifts for their children in socks and hang them on their children's beds on Christmas Eve. The next day, the first thing the children do after waking up is to look for gifts from Santa Claus on their bedside. Nowadays, Santa Claus has become a symbol of good luck and good luck. He is not only an indispensable figure when celebrating Christmas, but also an indispensable figure when celebrating the New Year. In short, Santa Claus has always existed in people's spiritual world, because most of his stories promote the spirit of Christianity.

Religious soldiers from Italy brought the relics of Saint Nicholas back to Italy at the end of the 11th century and built a church in his honor in the port city of Bari. Soon Christians from all over the world came to pay homage to this saint. These pilgrims brought the story of Saint Nicholas back to their homeland, so the legend of Santa Claus has its own characteristics in each country.

The Saint Nicholas Memorial Day appeared in Europe in the 12th century, focusing on the exchange of gifts and charity activities. Germany, France, and the Netherlands use December 6 as a religious day to give gifts to children and the poor. When the Dutch colonists came to America, they brought their Bishop Sintirklass with them. Sintirklass was wearing a red cassock and riding a white horse. The American image of Sintirklass later evolved into that of a jolly old elf. At first, the American writer Washington Irving described him as a round and fat old Dutch man in his comedy "The History of New York".

In 1823, the poet Clement Moore continued to dramatize the image of Sintirklass/Saint Nicholas in his poem "Impression of St. Nicholas". This is the Santa Claus you see at the beginning of this article. In the 1860s, cartoonist Thomas Nash drew a fat, kind Santa Claus as an illustration for "Harper's Week". This image of Santa Claus began to be deeply rooted in the minds of the American people. Over time, the image of Santa Claus spread back to Europe, to South America, and throughout the world. Many countries have preserved their own customs and legends about Santa Claus. In Dutch legend, Santa Claus Sintirklass also brought an assistant named Black Peter and arrived on a ship on December 6. He carries a big book with him that describes what all the Dutch kids have done over the past year. Children who behave well will be given gifts, and children who behave poorly will be taken away by his assistant. German Santa Claus also brings an assistant called Knecht Ruprecht, Krampus or Pelzebock, who carries a large bag with gifts on his shoulder and holds a stick in his hand. Good children receive gifts from him, but naughty children have to be taught a few sticks.

The Santa Claus in Italy is called La Befana; the Santa Claus in France is called Father Christmas or Pere Noel; the Santa Claus in Switzerland is called Christkindl or Christ Child; the Santa Claus in Scandinavia is called julenisse or juletomte ; The British Santa Claus is also called Father Christmas (Father of Christmas) like the French. His image is more solemn and thinner than other Santa Clauses. Santa Claus in North America rides a sleigh pulled by reindeer to deliver gifts to children and add joy to the holiday. Nowadays, Western Christmas beliefs are slowly introduced into China. On Christmas Eve in December, Christmas trees are placed on the roadside, and Santa Claus on the window has become a symbol of joy.