St. Nicholas as Santa Claus.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17410, 12 December 1924, Page 1 (Supplement)

St. Nichol as as Santa Claus.

Origin of Christmas Tree. Oddly enough, the origin..l Santa Claus the saint from whom the children derive their pel Christmas won-der-maker was not at first associated with Christmas Day. Even now St Nicholas’s day is observed in some .European countries on the saint's own day, December 6. It i. on that day that ho brings to little children gifts or a stic’x, according to their merits. St Nicholas’s day, like that of other saints, is not his birthday, save in the sense that it was the day when he was born into heavenly life. The real St Nicholas, from whom conies our Santa Claus, the patron .saint of Russia, who has many churches named for him. Jived and performed acts of kindness in the fourth century and died and was transported to paradise on December t>, 343. At Bari, Italy, where be was buried, his day was observed as a holy day. It grew to he the custom for little children, whose special patron he was, to leave out their shoes and stockings on the eve of St Nicholas’s day, confident that he would not forget them. In the morning these were never found empty of the things dear to childhood’s hearts and the children believed that the good St Nicholas had left them. In convents where young girls were educated, silk stockings were hung on the door of the abbess with little notes informing the saint of the special desires of each maiden. And, 10, miracle of miracles, in the morning the saint had heard and answered. So American girls and boys of the twentieth century find their stockings filled on Christmas morning through the bountv of Santa Clans, whom they call St Nicholas in Christmas songs and stories, though the more familiar name of Santa is oftener on their lips. The little Italians who thus are favoured by St Nicholas on his own day . December 6, expect nothing from him on Christmas Day. It is the cliildChrist, the bambina. who brings them gifts on his own birthday. In Austria a St Nicholas procession was for many generations an important festival. It was composed of men and boys, some dressed as angels.

others a.s creatures quite the opposite of angelic. On the eve of December 6 this procession passed from house to house. The' children in ea«-li home were catechised as to their sins and virtues. Jf they had been good the angels rewarded them : if naughty they were threatened with punishment- and left without gifts. The legend on which the good saint’s gift-making disposition is based is this : A poor citizen of the time of St Nicholas bad three daughters, to whom ho. could* give no marriage portion. St Nicholas wished to relieve them of their poverty. On three successive nights he went secretly and threw- into their window a purse of gold, one for each. It is to he hoper that, with such help each maiden secured a. worthy husband Because of this generosity St Nicholas became t.ho gift bringer and the patron saint of maidens. While St Nicholas, in the early days, seems to have confined himself to shoes and stockings sis receptacles for his gifts. Santa Claus is more latitudinarian in his views as to what shall bold them. He is impartial, caring not whether they be placed in stockings of plates or suspended from wonderfully illumined tree But even when the tree is used stockings, albeit they be of net. play an important part in its adornment. The tree as a gift-hearer is not a modern idea. It is older than St Nicholas or Christmas Day itself- In the da.vs of creation it was known, was coeval with Adam and Eve, for did it not bear the fruit of all knowledge, of which they ate ? 'The early Egyptians used the palm as a gift-hearing tree. In Rome a fi. tree was gaily lighted at the least of Saturn and at the festival of Sigillaria, which followed hard upon the Saturnalia. Roman matrons hung upon its friendly branches little waxen figures of mythological personage.-, which were given to the children, who received them with as much joy a> do modern children their Christmas gifts. Like our Christmas present.-, these little gifts were distinguished by the name of the festival, Sigillaria, at which they were given. It is not unlikely that the idea of a Christmas tree sprang from its use bv the Romans. Though in the northern countries, the world-tree, the Ygdrasil of the Scandinavians, with its roots in the earth and upper branches reaching heavenward, may have been its origin. The legend of Boniface, apostle to the ancient Germans, tells that it was he who gave the people the pine tree to bear to their homes as the centre of loving rites perfot med in the warmth and light of the household. The thunder oak. sacred to the cruel god Thor, crowned a lonely snowclad hill. Beneath it a fire was kindled near an altar surrounded by w hiterobed warriors who waited to see a child victim die under the hammer blow given by the high priest. Then came Boniface. bearing his cross symbol of a kindlier religion which was to overcome that of the hammer. Kelling the oak, under which the cruel rites were held in cold and quiet, he bade the people to take from the bill a. fir and bear it to the chieftain’s hall, where they could celebrate in peace and love the birthnight of the white Christ wh ► came to save, not to sacrifice liftle children. So the fir became the Christmas tree and the pagan rites and festivities of the winter solstice were each in turn spiritualised and made symbolic of the

new faith which was to bring ]>eace and good will to men. The mumming of the olden days ; the gay pranks of the lord of misrule: the hearing with rejoicing and carolling the great yule log: the decking of church and home with greens; the superstitions connected with the mistletoe ; the wassail howl and mince pies and plum puddings; all the quaint old custom's ran ho traced hack to festivals held in ancient times at the period of the winter solstice. Usually at. these festivals a gentler spirit prevailed than at other seasons. In the Saturnalia, all master and man were considered equal, and at Christmas there has always a feeling that distinction of class should be forgotten and only the fact of a common humanits lx* remembered. - Chicago “Record-Herald.”