Show Notes
Have you ever been sorry you asked something? Don’t be! PLSJ’s Reference Librarian J.L. finds the answers to questions you thought might not even have an answer.
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Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Welcome to P ls J'S podcast for the public library of Steubenville and Jefferson County shares with you our favorite quirky questions finds out what leaders in our community are reading interviews, local authors, and so much more. This podcast is part of the Ask Us series where the reference librarian shares answers to some of our favorite questions from the past and provides information on topics youth ponder, but didn't know who to ask. Now, you do
Speaker 2 00:00:44 Heavy holidays. Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, your mind is probably turning to gift giving, and the person who gives the gift might very well be a certain jolly man in a red suit. But where did that jolly man when some of us knew his Santa Claus come from? How long has he been giving gifts and why does he give them out in the first place?
Speaker 2 00:01:10 It all starts back in the fourth century with the Bishop of Myra, Greece by the name of St. Nicholas. Nicholas was known as a kind man, obviously eventually achieved, say hood, and was the patron saint of not only gift giving, but of sailors, merchants, archers, orphans, laborers, and scholars among other things. So he was a well known and well regarded saint in his feast day was celebrated on December 6th. One of the ways that this would be celebrated is people would exchange gifts. The reason for this being a story about St. Nicholas, there was a man, whether he was a poor man or a no woman who had fallen on hard times, depends on who you hear the story from. But this man had three daughters. The daughters were all godly and beautiful, but weren't available to be married because the man could not provide a dowry so good.
Speaker 2 00:02:12 St. Nicholas snuck up to the house and threw on three separate occasions, bags of gold through the window. In some versions, the bags of gold landed in stockings that had been hung by the fireside to dry. But with that gold, the man was able to provide a dowry, and the daughters were able to get married, and thus the giving of gifts was associated with St. Nicholas and St. Nicholas Day. In some cases, obviously most people didn't have gold to give, but they would often leave oranges in stockings, which if you ever got an orange in your stocking for Christmas that comes from St. Nicholas and an orange being at least close in color to gold, well then Martin Luther gets involved in the story. I'm sure you've all heard of Martin Luther in the Reformation, but Martin Luther was not a fan of the Federation of various saints in the celebration of Saints feast days.
Speaker 2 00:03:15 But he knew that people would want to have a holiday where they were giving gifts. So this was of course December 6th being close to the already established holiday of Christmas. And so Martin Luther decided that it would be a good idea for people to exchange gifts on Christmas. He had originally proposed that it be the Kris Kin or price child that gave the gifts on Christmas. Other places decided that it would possibly be something like Father Christmas that they have in England, or the Chris King occasionally became referred to as Chris Kringle, which is just a corruption of the word Chris kin. Uh, in some cases, the Chris Kin is not considered the actual Christ child, but an angel favored by Christ and said Angel was often portrayed in Christmas pageants by a teenage girl and can be accompanied by everyone's favorite Christmas boogeyman, the Craus, because of course, the Christ king is giving the gifts.
Speaker 2 00:04:18 Somebody has to be punishing the bad children. And in other places, they decided that while the gifts would be given on Christmas, it would still be St. Nicholas. And sometimes Nicholas is accompanied by the crump and sometimes by a not quite politically correct figure called Black Peter, who is literally a black man who in later years went from the one who was handing out punishment to just Santa Claus's black helper. Well, Santa Claus or St. Nicholas eventually made his way to America by way of the Dutch, for the Dutch still revered St. Nicholas. And indeed, the ship that brought them to New Amsterdam had St. Nicholas as its figurehead since he was the patron saint of sailors. This was a good figurehead to have. Santa Claus by the Dutch was called Center Claus. Center Claus was of course, giving gifts on Christmas, and everybody thought this was a good idea.
Speaker 2 00:05:24 In Cent Klaus's, you may have heard, eventually became corrupted to Santa Claus, which you say Cent Klaus fast. But Cent Klaus was indeed St. Nicholas, as was the person who was depicted in a visit from St. Nicholas, or also known as Close the Night before Christmas by Cliff Clark Moore. However, despite this being referred to as St. Nicholas or St. Nick and it never being called Santa Claus, this is the first depiction we get of a fat jolly man who sounded like a bowl full of jelly, being the one who gives out the gifts. This is where we first in 1822, get the idea of our Santa Claus. The image was solidified by a cartoonist by the name of Thomas Nat. Nat provided us with a moderate image in the middle of the 19th century of Santa Claus. He took Clement Clark's Moore's image of St. Nicholas. You know, he added the toys, but there he was a jolly fat man with a white hair and beard and a cap in the fur trim on his red clothes, where previously St. Nicholas had been depicted as one might expect a saint tall, thin man wearing robes and a bishop's minor. So the question is, are they all the same person or are they all different? You'll have to ask the child in your life who believes in Santa Claus,
Speaker 2 00:07:11 And whether you believe in Santa Claus or not, I hope you're not. Sorry, you asked.
Speaker 1 00:07:34 Thanks for listening to p ls j's podcast. Have a question you want the answer to? Visit the library's [email protected] or email the reference department at chapa branch seo libraries.org.
