history lessons part II
Originally posted by barkel
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2. St. Nicholas was the patron saint of children, who, around Yuletide, would go from house to house rewarding children who knew their Bible verses by heart with candy. Most people don\'t know of St. Nick\'s side kick, Black Pete. This is no joke. Black Pete was an ashen covered man with a beard who carried a sack. If you didn\'t know your verses, Black Pete would stick you in his bag and drag you around for a spell. It was once believed that fear of public humiliation was a healthy way to teach children.
3. Some of the imagery for Santa comes from Black Pete and some from a very common pagan icon of the \"wild man.\" Now, I will get some of these details wrong, so please forgive. The wild man lives in the wild and comes into town on a rare occasion to perform acts of benevolence or mischeif. I believe the wild man is a fertility god. The wild man is sometimes depicted as a regular man and sometimes depicted with cloven hooves. Yes, this is where Christian lore took one of the very common images for Satan.
So, it is no coincidence that Santa and Satan are closely tied. They both, MAY derive, in part, from similar mythology.
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Indeed, correct. Here, in Holland, we still celebrate \"Sinterklaas\" (sounds like SantaClause) in december, the 5th to be exactly. We also have a thing with X-mas, but mainly the tree. Not so many presents, or none, but still very cosy and warm, family-like.
The story to santa is: he was a bisshop, living in Spain (Madrid), and the black figure in this story is his loyal, faithfull companion. So, no rasicm involved her.
Ehmmm... there is more to this story, but I cant remeber it now. It had to do something with the presents he gave to children, he was like a friend to them. If I find more info (or remember
) I will post this, if the thread is still alive.
Oh, he had a white horse, wich could climb on the roofs of buildings, and the presents were \"thrown\" down the chimney. So, as a kid, you sang songs at the chimney (by the fire, wich was of course extinquised late a t night), and you put there also fresh water (for the horse), some straw and some carrots. All for this wonderfull creature, wich had to climb all the roofs in the whole country, in 1 night...
More ? lol cheers, JaM
edit: the black figure was, indeed, a negroe. No beard here. I hope I dont insult anyone here, it\'s just children\'s myths. And the children here are very good in seeing the difference between a \"black man/woman\" (is this PC enough? serious here) and the so called \"black pete\" wich is a \"white guy/girl\" with schmink (you know, body paint) on his /her face.
Again, no racism involved here. serious.
