Santa Claus tradition began when?

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Santa Claus (Santa Claus)

Western fairy tale characters. Originated from European folklore. It is said to be a white-bearded old man in a red robe and black boots who goes to every house on Christmas Eve to distribute gifts to children. Parents usually 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 thousands of years ago in Scandinavia. Odin, the Norse god of wisdom, art, poetry, and war, rode his eight-legged horse to the ends of the earth in winter to punish evil and distribute gifts. Meanwhile, his son, Thor, dressed in red and armed with lightning, battles the gods of ice and snow to defeat 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 known as St. Nicholas. Because most of these stories promote the spirit of Christ, their origins and storylines have been largely forgotten, but Santa Claus is always in people's spiritual world.

Every year at Christmas (which is the day of the birth of Jesus, the God of Western Christianity, and is equivalent to the Chinese New Year), Santa Claus rides on a reindeer, and the Holy Child descends to earth with a Christmas tree in his hand, and as the world changes, writers and artists begin to depict Santa Claus in the red suit and white beard image that we are familiar with today. As the world changed, writers and artists began to depict Santa Claus in the red suit and white beard we are familiar with today. At the same time, different countries and cultures have different interpretations of Santa Claus. In Germany, legend has it that he dresses up as a holy child and puts nuts and apples in children's shoes. He roams around in a two-wheeled carriage, observing people's behavior, especially children, and if they behave well, they are rewarded with apples, nuts, candy and many other prizes. Bad kids got a whip. Parents were inspired to adopt this legend to encourage their children to behave. It has greatly surpassed New Year's Day as a national holiday. Santa Claus has become the most beloved symbol and tradition of Christmas. The image of the jolly old elf who drives his reindeer and pulls a sleigh full of toys and presents from door to door to deliver gifts to every child has stuck in people's memories.

Santa Nicholas

The first story

The Santa Claus, who wears a thick red and white robe, was not actually born in the icy Arctic Circle, but in the town of Denre on the Mediterranean coast, so if he showed up at his old house in this getup, it must have been too hot to bear.

The Santa Claus story reportedly originated with the religious figure of St. Nicholas. He was the bishop of the sunny town of Denre, Turkey, in the fourth century A.D. He was so charitable that people added myths to his life story, which eventually evolved into the gift-bearing, smiling Santa Claus we all know today.

Legend has it that there was a poor family in town who could not afford to buy dowries for their three daughters, and St. Nicholas knew about it and threw a bag of gold through the window of the family's house one night, and then threw another bag the next day. But on the third day, the window was closed, and St. Nicholas had to climb up on the roof and drop the bag of gold down the chimney, which landed right inside the girl's stocking that was drying in the fireplace, and eventually evolved into the tradition of hanging stockings on Christmas Eve and waiting for Santa Claus to deliver the gifts.

The second story

Santa Claus was originally named Nicholas, and was born in the fourth century in the city of Bardala in Asia Minor, to a wealthy family of dedicated Catholic parents, who unfortunately died young. When Nicholas grew up, he gave all his rich possessions to the poor and needy, but he himself became a monk and devoted himself to the Church, serving the community for the rest of his life. Nicholas later became a priest and was elevated to the rank of bishop. During his life, he did a lot of charitable work, and he loved to help the poor in secret. Santa Claus was his nickname later on, and the name came from the story of how he helped three girls by giving them money in secret.

It is said that not far from Nicholas lived three beautiful young girls, who were twenty, eighteen, and sixteen years old. The father was a poor scholar and often lived on borrowed money. Once, because of the inability to pay the debt, had to be cruel to the beautiful and healthy three daughters, sold to the debtor to take to Africa as a maid. The three daughters knew about this, they embraced together and cried bitterly, the sadness of the family situation, can be imagined. When Nicholas learned of this, he ran to their home and comforted them. At night, Nicholas filled three stockings with gold, and secretly hung them in front of the windows of the three maidens. With the gold, they paid their father's debt, and the three daughters were saved from their fate as maids. The next day was Christmas, and they knew that Nikolai had done the good deed, so they invited him to come and celebrate and thank him at the same time. From then on, every Christmas, the three girls told this story. The children were so envious that they wished Santa Claus would come and give them a stocking.

Then the clever parents started to give their children stocking stuffers in the name of Santa Claus. As a result, this custom became popular all over Europe and America. Nicholas later became bishop of the city of Mira, and because he was also an orphan as a child, he became a special protector of orphans. After his death, the Church canonized him as a saint. His love for orphans and his spirit of helping the poor have been passed down with Christmas. Later on, many kind-hearted people in the world followed Nicholas' spirit of love and donated a lot of goods in the name of Santa Claus to bring love to the poor, the poor old people and the orphans. Every year when Christmas comes, Santa Claus always appears all over the world, bringing warmth and happiness to millions of children, lonely old people and abandoned children. We hope that all the rich people in the world will be Santa Claus, and spread the light of love to every corner of the world, not only at Christmas, but also at other times of the year, as far as they are able.

The American version of Santa Claus

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

The early appearance of "Santa Claus" in American news papers in 1773 was the first time that best-selling American author Washington Irving presented information about the Dutch version of Nicholas (Santa Claus) as an American. According to New York history, Irving, using the pen name Diedrich, described the arrival of Nicholas on horseback (unaccompanied by a black pelt) in an 1809 newspaper.

Different legends about Santa Claus in the Northern Hemisphere

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

Santa's predecessor was Nicholas, the bishop of the port city of Izmir in western Turkey, who lived in the 4th century A.D. and was a kind, generous and rich man who was very good to children. The Orthodox Church honors Nicholas as a miracle worker.

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

Children want to know where Santa Claus lives and when they will receive their presents. The answer is usually that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole and produces Christmas presents in his workshop. 1927 saw the first revelation from Markus Rautio, a children's presenter who was known to children as "Uncle Markus", that Santa Claus lives in Korvatunturi, Lapland.

Korvatunturi, in the eastern border region of Finland, is a small town in the heart of the country. Korvatunturi, on Finland's eastern border, has been found to have a hare-like ear, which is in fact Santa Claus's ear, which he uses to listen to children's wishes. Scandinavian legends tell the history of Santa Claus and his helper, Elfmon.

By the end of the last century, the different legends of Santa Claus in the northern hemisphere were aggregated into the same version - the white-bearded old man distributing gifts to children before returning to Kornatunturi in Finnish Lapland.

Beginning in 1950, Santa Claus happily sojourned in napapiiri, communicating with children and young people in addition to Christmas. More and more people visited Santa Claus regularly and in 1985 he set up his own workshop, where every day Santa Claus came to the office to listen to the children's Christmas wishes and communicate with them. Santa's Village is Santa's main post office, which receives letters sent to Santa from children all over the world.

The Unknown Side of Santa Claus

The Church used a Christian figure, St. Nicholas, as a substitute for a supernatural pagan in distributing gifts and rewards for the purpose of controlling his parishioners. It is highly ironic that the bloodthirsty Thompton should be associated with a Christian saint. At first Thompson did not lose his savage and evil character, in parts of Germany St. Nicholas was known as "Nicholas the Bellringer" because he would come into the house with bells and chains, Thompson would wake up sleeping children and drag them out of bed and ask them questions about Christian doctrines and if the children couldn't answer he would beat them with a stick St. Nicholas also threw coals at them. St. Nicholas also threw lumps of coal at them until the children bled, then Templeton drew blood from their wounds. If the child answered the question correctly St. Nicholas would reluctantly award him an apple or a piece of sweet meat.

Legend has it that Santa Claus appeared thousands of years ago in Scandinavia. Odin, the Norse god of wisdom, art, poetry and war, rode his eight-legged horse to the ends of the earth in winter to punish evil and distribute gifts. Meanwhile, his son, Thor, dressed in red and armed with lightning, battled the gods of ice and snow to defeat 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 known as St. Nicholas, who was originally the bishop of the city of Perla in Asia Minor, named St. Nicholas, and was honored as a saint after his death as a white-bearded old man wearing a red robe and a red hat. Every Christmas he drove a deer-drawn sleigh from the north, by the chimney into the homes, the Christmas gifts in socks hung on the children's bed or in front of the fireplace. So, when Westerners celebrate Christmas, parents put Christmas gifts for their children in socks and hang them above the children's beds on Christmas Eve. The next day, the first thing the children do when they wake up is to look for the gifts from Santa Claus on their beds. Nowadays, Santa Claus has become a symbol of good luck and is indispensable not only for Christmas, but also for New Year's celebrations. In short, Santa Claus has been immortalized in the spiritual world of mankind because most of his many stories promote the spirit of Christ.

Religious soldiers from Italy brought the relics of the saint 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 were making pilgrimages to the saint. These pilgrims brought the story of Saint Nicholas back to their native lands, so that the legend of Santa Claus is unique to each country.

Saint Nicholas' memorial day appeared in Europe in the 12th century, featuring the exchange of gifts and charitable activities. Germany, France and the Netherlands, on the other hand, used Dec. 6 as a religious observance to give gifts to children and the poor. When the Dutch colonists came to America, they brought with them their Bishop Sintirklass, who wore a red surplice and rode a white horse.The American image of Sintirklass evolved into that of a jolly old elf. At first, the American writer Washington Irving, in his comedy In his comedy "The History of New York," Irving described him as a round, fat old Dutchman.

In 1823, the poet Clement Moore continued to dramatize the image of Sintirklass/Saint Nicholas in his poem "The Impression of St. Nicholas," which is the Santa Claus you see at the beginning of this post. In the 1860s cartoonist Thomas Nash drew a chubby, benevolent Santa Claus as an illustration for Harper's Week. This image of Santa Claus began to become ingrained in the minds of the American people. Over time, the image of Santa Claus traveled back to Europe, to South America, and around the world. Many countries have preserved their own customs and legends about Santa Claus. In the Dutch legend, Santa Claus Sintirklass also brought a helper named Black Peter, who arrived on December 6 on a ship. He carries a large book which describes how all the Dutch children have behaved during the past year. The children who had done well were given presents, and the children who had not done well were taken away by his helper. Santa Claus in Germany also carries a helper called Knecht Ruprecht, Krampus or Pelzebock, with a big sack with presents on his shoulder and a stick in his hand. Good children could receive his gifts, while naughty children had to be taught a few lessons with the stick.

The Italian Santa Claus is called La Befana; the French Santa Claus is called Father Christmas or Pere Noel; the Swiss Santa Claus is called Christkindl or Christ Child; the Scandinavian Santa Claus is called julenisse or juletomte; and the British Santa Claus, like the French, is called Father Christmas. Santa Claus and France is also called Father Christmas (Father Christmas), his image than the other Santa Claus is more solemn, more thin some. In North America, Santa Claus rides in a reindeer-drawn sleigh to deliver gifts to children and add joy to the holiday season. Nowadays, the Western Christmas faith is also slowly spread to China, December Christmas Eve, the roadside with a Christmas tree, and the window on the Santa Claus it, but has become a symbol of joy.