In Celebration of Santa  

St. Nicholas, patron saint to children and sailors, and gift giver to the less fortunate.  Alleged to have been the Bishop of Myra, and to have attended the first council of Nicea.  Yes, I did state "alleged" since archeological sources call into doubt the actual existence of this person.

According to B.A. Robinson, evidence from the fourth century shows that, like many of the Christian saints, St. Nicholas was created based upon deities worshipped in pagan practices.  Specifically, he was created from qualities of the god Poseidon.  Temples and shrines to the god were remade into shrines for St. Nicholas.  In addition, at least as far as the gift giving goes, the Church incorporated aspects of the goddess Befana, and her shrine at Bari also became a shrine to St. Nicholas.

As for being the Bishop of Myra, per records maintained by the church regarding the attendees of that first council, he is not listed.  In fact, there is no historical evidence of such a man.  So where did he come from?  In part, as with St. Brigid, from the fertile minds of Christian dogma.  And many of the legends that we associated with St. Nicholas today were collected and written by Metaphrastes in the tenth century.
Does this make Santa, and the season of Yule, any less special to pagan children of all ages?  Of course not!  The Santa of today, in American society, is based upon the poem "’Twas the Night Before Christmas," and the Coca-Cola drawings of Santa begun in the 1930’s by Haddon Sundblom.  While Santa is a commercialization of the Christian holiday, he can still have meaning in our lives.

We all know that many of the symbols used to celebrate Christmas have pagan origins, such as mistletoe and the Yule log.  And homes all over the world are decorated with candles and shimmering lights.  And let us not forget the star!  But what really did our ancestors celebrate at this time of year?

In the cultures of northern Europe, the solstice was a time of giving and sharing, and asking for blessings to be bestowed upon family and friends.  For many cultures, it was a celebration of motherhood and the mysteries of birth.  The Romans celebrated the week-long festival of Saturnalia  to celebrate the coming solar year, to make merry and renew ties with friends and family, to honor the deities, to feast and relax; a time when people could say and do what they wanted.  And Dionysia was a five-day Greek festival, celebrated at the full moon of Poseidon, held at about the same time but not to the excess of their Roman counterparts.  In each case, the deities honored were the gods and goddesses of abundance and of the changing life cycle.

And as for Santa himself, as written in the New York Sun in 1897 - 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 be the world if there were no Santa Claus! …  There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.  We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished."

So joyously celebrate Santa. To quote the New York Sun one more time, "Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies."  And that would be foolish now, wouldn’t it?
 
 

© 2000 Mother