No. Santa Claus has been exported to america by the Dutch. In the Netherlands and Belgium especially, we celebrate "Saint Nicolas" (not sure of english spelling, it's "Sinterklaas" in dutch)
Saint Nicolas was a greek bishop in Myra, what is now turkey around the year 300.
In the lore of the dutch festivities, Saint Nicolas arrives on the 6th of december and brings presents to all children who have been good and nice during the year. Sound familiar? It should.
The Dutch that migrated to the US and took Saint Nicolas festivities and traditions with them. Between the 1700s and the 20th century, Saint Nicolas in the US somehow shifted from the 6th of december to the 25th and somehow merged with christmas. Coca Cola then went big on Santa in it's christmass themes and helped spread this addition to christmas.
Funnily enough, it got imported back into Europe for christmass... So now we have Sinterklaas / Saint Nicolas with his own lore on the 6th and then Santa Claus on the 25th. Although we don't call him Santa Claus. I guess for PR reasons, they didn't name him that because it would be confusing to children as in dutch, that kinda sounds like Sinterklaas' evil twin
So we just call him "De Kerstman". Which literally translates to the unimaginative "The Christmass Man". But they are one and the same. Eventhough the lore says that one comes from the south by boat and the other from the North Pole by magical sled pulled by magic deer.
But in any case, just to clarify: no. Santa Claus is not "one of the names of satan". It rather is the Saint name of a Greek bishop that lived in Myra around the years 300
Indeed it is. If memory serves me right, this is a practice that originates in old germanic, keltic, viking... cultures. Every one of these cultures did similar things to green plants and trees, both inside and outside the house during fesitivities of the winter solstice etc - which is december 25th.
In a way, you could actually say that Santa Claus is actually, originally anyway, one of the most christian things about christmass, as it originally comes from an actual christian holiday celebrating a greek bishop.
It actually is very likely that if Christianity wasn't so accomodating of other culture's own practices and festivities, that christianity would not have spread as the dominant religion in northern Europe and instead stay confined to the mediteranian region, as folks in the north wouldn't have been so willing to totally abbandon their own culture's traditions.
Isn't that what we call easter?
Don't know what location you talk about, but over here, easter is very much celebrated.
That's when the Easter Bunny comes to give chocolates to the children.
Indeed. Instead, let's collective be so weak as to regard a day devoted to someone conquering death and then ascending into heaven, because that's not superstitious at all.
No, I'm an atheist and I just think it's fun to have themed traditional holidays. It's extra fun for the kids as well. Also a good occasion to go the extra mile to get
all the family together and have a good time. During the rest of the year, everyone is always so busy....
For me, when I think about christmass, new year, easter,... It fills me with joy as it is associated with lovely memories of partying with the family, all together. Having fun, laughing, talking, playing games, drinking, eating good food,.... Coupled with the themed decorations of twinkling lights and shiny balls in trees... it's almost magical, like going to disney land.
Christmass holiday is by far my favorite time of the year. On the 2nd of january, when the "closing" party of the holiday is over, I'm already looking forward the end of december again.
Not to mention that some of them also died and resurected 3 days later.
Yes, as said above, that was kind of the point.
It would have been a lot hard to get "pagan" cultures to convert to christianity otherwise. Such accomodations made it less of a step to take.
You don't seem to realise that if it wasn't for such accomodation, chances are rather real that christianity wouldn't be the dominant religion in the world at all. Who knows, it might have died out by now instead.
We'll never know. Although it's fun to think about.
Again: Santa Claus is Saint Nicolas, a greek christian bishop from the years 300, declared a saint.
Actually, in the Sinterklaas lore, it's not Nicolaas that comes down the chimney. It's his "Black Pete" helpers.
It's actually funny.... Here's a small anecdote...
These last couple of years, there is some resistance in the Netherlands by overly politically correct organizations that believe the Sinterklaas lore is racist, because of those Black Pete's. They feel like it looks as if they are his black slaves. I'm sure, in retrospect, that originally this was the case centuries ago.
But it's not at all how I saw it, nore how it was told to me. I was told that Pete looked so black because he was dirty from crawling down chimney's. And it when Sinterklaas and his Pete's visited, this was also apparant as Pete's were white folks who had black "goo" (make up) on their face. You knew Sinterklaas visited a classroom because all the kids would come out with black cheeks from Pete's rubbing their face on them.
So I didn't see it as a racial thing at all.
But anyway....
I clearly remember discussing Santa Claus with my parents and them telling me he too comes down the chimney. I didn't believe them. They asked me why I didn't believe it. My answer was simple: "
then he'ld be blacked by fire remnant goo like black pete... instead, he's alway dressed in that very clean and bright red/white suit. Even his hair is clean white."
No kidding,
that was the reason why I never bought into Santa Claus, yet was -for a while at least- totally on board with Sinterklaas. That didn't last very long though
So anyway.... I thought that's pretty funny
I was taught about both Sinterklaas
and Santa, but was never instructed into any religion.
Only one of us seems damaged by lies told by parents, and it doesn't look it's me.
At least my parents acknowledged that Sinterklaas doesn't exist when I figured it out and/or started asking questions. But nobody told you as much concerning your Jesus.
The damage comes from maintaining the lie AND issuing threats when the lies are starting to be questioned. Nobody ever told me that I would be punished if I didn't believe in Santa or Sinterklaas.
Somehow, I'm positive that
many have told you exactly that about Jesus.
It's sad that the irony of these last couple of statements of yours will be totally lost on you.
EDIT: ow, and to top it off.... according the calculated date, my daughter will be born on the 25th of december!! Double party! WHOEHOE! I already look forward to all the new memories that will bring me.
