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 Christmas
Shopping
a few hours before Christmas Eve is a “skill” which
requires patience and a lot of hard work. You’d be prowling
through a list of activities like, getting the gifts for the family,
taking the groceries, waddling through car traffic, and safely passing
a lot of disgruntled, late-shoppers, just like yourself. The high
anxiety level is always there, that any moment soon would be Christmas
Eve, and the sparse highway would morph into the real December
nightmare with cars honking, sleet slamming, and people scowling
everywhere. And you really feel the nag to be at home, resting by the
fireplace before that appointed time, thinking; is this really how
Christmas should be?
At some point of introspection why an even non-Christmas wee route
would normally be packed with drivers, my friend and I started talking
about who Santa Claus is… How did it all begin? It should be
more than a coincidence that St. Nick appeared about the same time Baby
Jesus celebrated his birthday.
Christ wasn’t really a December baby, and many would even
believe he was born around February or March. I think
it’s still a pretty odd guess, since changes with the
Greenwich Time seemed to cause that erroneous dating. This
means, we’ve been following a wrong
clock, and we really couldn’t tell when St. Nick or Christ
for that matter, really first
appeared.
It’s odd how much trivia we know, but then we cannot recall
it when we need to. So I did a little research, to remind us
of the origins of the patron saint of Christmas…or whoever
he first was, other than someone who secretly left goodies in wooden
shoes….
All western cultures know of Saint Nicholas (4th-century Byzantine), a
beneficent man who left gifts in secret for the people. His real name
was Nicholas of Myra, a bishop of Lycia. He was canonized, and became
one of the most famous saints among merchants, seamen, archers,
children, students, pharmacists, lawyers, pawnbrokers and
prostitutes. His name became known as Saint
Nicholas, then St. Nick, as well as a host of other names:
Nickolaus in Germany; Sinterclaas in Flanders/the Netherlands; and,
finally, Santa Claus in the western world. By any of these
names, he is best remembered for his generosity and love for the
poor.
But St. Nicholas of Lycia is not to be confused with Saint Nicholas of
Sion, nor should he be feared (beyond his power to define good boys and
girls from the bad ones) for his associations with Knecht Ruprecht, the
fabled accompanier of St. Nick in Germany, who would eat bad
children. Nor should Saint Nicholas--or Santa Claus--be
forgotten as a saint—though his original eve was celebrated
in early December. Martin Luther replaced the
events with those associated with Christ-child respects on Christmas
eve, in favor of a Catholic mindset…much to the chagrin
of Protestants, who were (and still often are) honoring their
revered saint, Nicholas.
No wonder, my friend and I, too, were confused. Once again,
we are left to our own religious beliefs and choices, left to honor
whomever we honor on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or any other sacred
time of the year.
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