Centuries before Jesus was born, people were already
celebrating light and birth during the winter season with various traditions. One
celebrated among the Norse people was “Yule” and came around the time of the
winter solstice, December 21st.
Yule Traditions
One of Yule traditions involved the men and their sons dragging
evergreen trees into the house as remembrances of life. They also burned logs
in the fireplace to symbolize good fortune – also called Yule logs.
Pagan God Mithra
Ancient Rome had its own winter festivals. Soldiers and government
officials worshipped the pagan god Mithra, the Sun God. Mithra’s birthday was
on December 25th and was the most important day of the year to his
followers.
December 25th
Selected as Christmas Day
By the first century AD pagan beliefs were being seriously
challenged by Christianity which was sweeping across the empire. Christ’s birthday was unknown and not
documented in the Bible. Since Rome
already celebrated December 25th as Mithra’s birthday, it appears
that the Church adopted this date for the birth of the Christ child. By the 4th
Century it became official as the Church made it the feast day of the nativity.
Church Adopts Pagan
Traditions
The pagan traditions of this time period were too ingrained
for the Church to outlaw during Christmas so they merely adopted them to fit
Christianity. For example, the evergreen trees they took and decorated them
with apples so that they would symbolize the Garden of Eden. These eventually
morphed into the ornaments we put on our Christmas trees today.
Saint Nicolas and
Sinterklaas
It was during the 4th Century that the legend of
Santa Claus gets started. A Turkish bishop by the name of Nicolas was known for
his giving nature. There were many stories of his kindness in giving to others.
The date of his death, December 6th, became “Saint Nicolas Day” and
was commemorated by giving good children toys and nothing to the children who
misbehaved. This tradition lived on
throughout Christian Europe until it merged with the celebration of the
Christian Holy Day. Saint Nicolas went by many names throughout
Christendom. In Holland he was called “Sinterklaas.”
Later when the Dutch settled the North Eastern part of the America’s his name
became “Santa Claus.”
Clarke Moore and the “Night
Before Christmas”
1500 years later an American, named Clement Clarke Moore, a
professor of oriental and Greek literature, took the legends of Nicolas and
Sinterklaas and wrote a historic poem called, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas,”
later changed to, “The Night Before Christmas.” It was a 58 line poem that created the modern
American vision of Christmas. In his
poem Santa was neither a Priest from the 4th Century nor a
Norse-type Odin character like Sinterklaas. Instead Moore dressed him in furs,
and he made him more elfish with a twinkle in his eye and a pipe between his
teeth. He toted a sack on his back full
of toys for the children. Moore is also responsible for creating the sleigh and
the eight reindeer that pulled it through the sky – including the names of each
one of them.
Thomas Nast Puts on
the Finishing Touches
Santa Claus, as we know him, was on his way thanks to Moore,
but he still lacked a place to live (the North Pole) and Elves to help him in
his workshop, not to mention and naughty and nice list. These and other details
came from the imagination of another New Yorker named Thomas Nast. He took
Moore’s Santa and made him much more like we see envision him today. In 1862 an
American Magazine called “Harpers Weekly,” commissioned Nast to draw its
Christmas illustrations. Nast transformed Moore’s jolly old elf by making him
taller and much grander. His images depicted Santa living at the North Pole and
reviewing a naughty and nice list and eventually gave him elves and a host of
other characteristics which are part of the icon of Santa Claus.
Of course the legend continues to grow today with cartoons,
and various stories of how Santa got his start and how he involves himself in
the lives of people who doubt his existence.
