Where is Santa Claus from? Detailed answer

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Where is Santa Claus from? Detailed answer

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Where is Santa Claus from?

Depending on your age, there are likely to be three answers: from the North Pole, from Lapland, and from Coca-Cola. None of these answers are correct: Santa, like Saint George, is a Turk.

St. Nicholas - the real Santa - lived and worked miracles in Southwestern Turkey, where today the sun-dried city of Kemer stands. The most famous of his miracles are usually associated with children. According to one of the legends, St. Nicholas brought back to life three children, chopped up by a local innkeeper and kept in a barrel of brine.

His kindness to children fully explains why St. Nicholas approaches the image of a Christmas saint in such a way, but at the same time he is the patron saint of judges, usurers, thieves, merchants, bakers, sailors and, oddly enough, murderers.

Italian sailors stole the myrrh-working relics of Saint Nicholas in 1087. The Turks are still demanding their return.

In the rest of Europe, the kind and merciful Saint Nicholas has merged with older and darker mythological figures. For example, in East Germany he is known as Shaggy Goat, Scavenger or Rider. In Holland, this is Zankta Klaus (in Dutch - Sinterklass), who is served by the "Black Peters".

"Coca-Cola" Jolly Santa existed long before Haddon Sundblom created the world-famous advertising images of the 1930s. His illustrations, like those of Thomas Nast in the 1860s, were based on the New Yorker Clement Clark Moore's poem "The Visit of Saint Nicholas" (1823) (better known as "Christmas on the Doorstep").

It is unlikely that Moore was the author of the rhyme - he still taught at the seminary and was an expert on dead (including Hebrew) languages - but his importance for inflating the myth of Santa cannot be overestimated. The action in the poem is moved to Christmas Eve, and instead of the stern Saint Nicholas, there appears a little elf with a white beard and a playful twinkle in his eyes, as well as a red fur coat with a fur trim, reindeer with funny names, a sleigh descending directly onto the roof - and full of toys bag. "Christmas on the Doorstep" became the most popular nursery rhyme of all time.

It's hard to say at what stage the North Pole and the elf factory stuck to history, but by 1927 the version was so firmly established that it allowed the Finns to claim Santa's place of residence. According to them, Santa does not live anywhere, but in Lapland, since not a single reindeer could survive at the North Pole due to the lack of lichen there.

The official post office of Site-Klaus is located in the city of Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland. Every year he receives 600 thousand letters.

As if in retaliation for secular success, the Vatican in 1969 downgraded the status of St. Nicholas Day (December 6), declaring it not obligatory for observance.

Author: John Lloyd, John Mitchinson

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

How old are the skittles?

The idea of rolling a round object towards a group of standing targets came to the mind of a person as a way of playing. In the graves of Egyptian children, which are more than 7000 years old, devices suitable for a skittles-like game have been found. There is evidence that a game already existed in the Stone Age, when large pieces of pebbles and cobblestones were rolled towards a painted stone, which served as a target.

Written evidence says that ball rolling originated in the monasteries of Europe about 700 years ago as part of religious rituals. The peasants of those days carried a bat when they went to church. They say that the priests, in order to heat up the situation, told people that the bat embodies evil and vices. The bat was placed in a corner, and the peasants rolled large stones or balls into it. If someone hit, he was praised, if he didn't hit, he was advised to lead a more righteous life. The priests got carried away with the idea of hitting the bat, which they called "Kingley" (hence the name of the game). They tried to do it themselves - and so a new game was born.

Later, people of noble birth and non-titled petty nobility began to play it. During the Middle Ages, skittles were a widespread and very popular game in Germany. When the game spread to England, people also became addicted to it.

During the reign of Henry VIII, the game was so strengthened that in 1530 the king ordered the construction of a bowling alley in his domain. The first Danish settlers brought the 9-pin game with them to America and played on the New York lawn.

Test your knowledge! Did you know...

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