All About Santa Claus
Who Is Santa Claus Anyway?
Santa Claus And His Connection To Christmas
Santa Claus is a major figure in the folklore of the Western world. His image has even spread to a few Asian countries such as Japan, whose connections with the West are quite deep and intricate. He has acquired his persona and lifestyle from a number of different cultures over the years, just as Christmas has gathered to itself many aspects that have little to do with the birth of Jesus. Christmas and Santa Claus have much in common in their development from primarily religious origins into the largely secular ideas that they are today. Let us have a meander through history and see just how the legend of Santa Claus, and particularly the Christmas Santa Claus, developed into such an integral part of our culture.
The Beginnings
It would appear that the template for Santa Claus was a 4th century Christian bishop called Saint Nicholas of Myra. Myra was then part of the Byzantine Empire situated in, what is now, Turkey. What connects him to our modern figure is his generosity to the poor in the form of gifts. The key story that caused him to be remembered was his gift of wedding dowries to three impoverished sisters, which saved them from the only other life open to poor, unwedded girls of the time: prostitution. His name and fame filtered into Europe over the centuries and he was particularly revered in the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and Germany. We shall see later that the Dutch brought him to America in the 17th century. Their spelling of his name: Sinterklaas, is the ancestor of our Santa Claus.