Читать книгу The Completely Useless Guide to Christmas - Martin Pullen - Страница 7
ОглавлениеST NICHOLAS, known throughout much of the world as Santa Claus, is, amongst many other things, the patron saint of children, merchants, archers, sailors and thieves.
He first became popular in America in the eighteenth century, having arrived from Europe along with the Dutch; the Dutch name for St Nicholas, Sinterklaas, over time becoming Santa Claus.
At first dressed in green, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, a huge pair of Flemish ballooned breeches and smoking a long pipe…
…Santa later evolved into the image of a joker, with red waistcoat, yellow stockings and a blue three-cornered hat – a colour combination well-deserving of a visit from the fashion police.
The present-day image of Santa Claus is thought to have partly come from Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal Church minister who, in his poem, An Account of a Visit from St Nicholas, described a portly figure who flew from house to house on Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer.
Squeezing down chimneys, St Nicholas would leave presents for children, but only if they had been well behaved.
In 1881, caricaturist and political cartoonist Thomas Nast, believed to be the creator of the all-American ‘Uncle Sam’ image, gave Santa a bushy white beard, pot belly and red clothes.
With Santa already dressed in the colours of their logo, in 1931 Coca-Cola commissioned artist Haddon Sundblom to illustrate Santa Claus drinking a bottle of the fizzy beverage for their Christmas advertising campaign.
Although Sundblom’s illustrations finally gave us the image most popular today, the claim that this image of Santa was created by Coca-Cola is, in reality, little more than successful advertising.
Sinterklaas
Saint Nicholas, good holy man! Put on the Tabard, best you can; Go, therewith, to Amsterdam.
Christmas comes early in the Netherlands and many other European countries. Having spent the year noting the behaviour of children in his special red book, Sinterklaas, dressed in Bishop’s robes, sets sail from Spain by steamboat, arriving mid-November at Amsterdam docks.
Accompanying Sinterklaas on his journey is his band of ‘Black Peter’ helpers. The story goes that St Nicholas was at a market in the ancient city of Myra when he saw an Ethiopian boy being sold for slavery. He freed the boy and, in return, the youngster decided to stay with him as his helper. Depicted dressed as a Spaniard, with a feathered cap, black curly hair and a blackened face, the image of ‘Black Peter’ is no longer considered politically correct, and the modern story tells that Black Peter has a blackened face because he has had to climb down sooty chimneys to deliver the children’s presents.
Having disembarked from Amsterdam’s docks, Sinterklaas leads a parade through the streets on his white horse, Amerigo. Meanwhile, his helpers throw sweets to well-behaved children, a tradition said to come from the saving of three young girls from prostitution by the tossing of gold coins through their window at night to pay for their father’s debts.
Whilst children deemed badly behaved face the bristly end of Black Peter’s chimney sweep’s brush…
…really naughty children risk being bundled into Sinterklaas’s sack and carted back to Spain!
Santa having arrived early, St Nicholas is celebrated on 5 December, St Nicholas Eve, with the exchange of presents. The following day is St Nicholas Day, and that’s it, festivities over for another year.
For country folk, this early end could well be a blessing in disguise as, continuing a tradition announcing the birth of the baby Jesus, every evening at sunset for the entirety of Christmas, farmers in the Netherlands blow long wooden horns.
And just to make sure their signal does not go unheeded, they amplify the sound by blowing the horns over water wells.
Klausjagen
In Switzerland, the arrival of St Nicholas is celebrated in the village of Küssnacht with the Klausjagen (St Nicholas chase) Festival.
On the evening of 5 December, following the firing of a cannon, a procession sets off, led by men cracking long sheep whips.
Close behind, white-robed celebrants called ‘lifeltrager’ pass through the streets wearing illuminated lanterns on their heads. Up to two metres in height, the lanterns resemble a cross between a bishop’s mitre and a stained-glass window.
The lightheaded lifeltrager are followed by St Nicholas, his four ‘Schmutzli’ helpers in black robes, torchbearers, a brass band playing traditional Christmas songs, 700 cowbell ringers and a further 180 men blowing long cow horns.
The parade continues until 7am the following morning, St Nicholas Day. By all accounts, time to invest in a decent pair of earplugs!
Krampus
Sounding not unlike a muscle pain acquired on a German camping holiday, Krampus is considered to be St Nicholas’s evil twin, accompanying him on his travels, delivering Christmas presents to the children of Austria and other Alpine countries. When the horned and monstrous-tongued goat-like creature finds what it considers to be a very badly behaved child, it lures the youngster to its underground lair, later to feast on it for Christmas dinner.
Increasingly celebrated in other European countries and parts of the United States, on 5 December, Krampus Night, men bearing torches and dressed in hairy goat-like costumes pass through the streets of towns and villages, frightening and punishing children who have misbehaved. Only this time, the good ones don’t get sweets…
