All year long, Santa Claus is busy in his workshop together with his wife and his many elves. They saw, cast, weld and mount, so that good children all over the world can get their share of gifts at Christmas time. In order to get it all done, his nine reindeer help him. They are so fast that they beat every record when they during one night visit all children all over the world. Those many lists get converted into aggregated lists. On their basis, the elves check whether demand is equal to inventory.
There is so much running forth and back between the Ice Sheet and the North Pole. When the actual distribution of gifts is about to start, the reindeer Danser, Dasher, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitz and, of course, Rudolph stand by at the dateline.
From here, they rush westwards to be sure that all presents are delivered by dusk. They zigzag at the speed of light from south to north. They move a little bit to the west each time they get back to the warehouse at the North Pole, where the sled gets filled up again quickly.
Being Santa Claus is not a piece of cake! Nikolaus had a very unlucky neighbor. Everything went wrong for him. Contact us Sign up for newsletters. Log In Register now My account. Christmas By Leo Cendrowicz. December 21, pm Updated October 15, pm. In particular, the origin of Santa in the Catholic Saint Nicholas, the 4th century Greek bishop who was known for his charitable gift-giving and countless miracles. The older I got, and the more I learned about Santa, the more I came to treasure the Christmas spirit he represented and the importance of keeping it in our hearts all year round.
This year, as my year-old daughter celebrates her last holiday at home before heading off to college, will be an extra special season for us. Here at Green Global Travel, we like to put an emphasis on the green aspect by finding lots of little ways to make life more sustainable.
Saint Nicholas was a Greek Christian bishop born sometime around A. He was famous for his generous and anonymous gifts to the poor. Given his birthplace, the real St Nicholas likely looked very different from the image of Santa Claus most people know today. When scientists reconstructed his face using forensic technology, they discovered that the future saint had a badly broken nose.
They surmised that he had received the injury during the persecution of Christians under the rule of Emperor Diocletian, who famously divided the Roman Empire. The saint is also commonly known as Nicholas the Wonderworker, due to the many miracles attributed to his intercession.
These include tales of him calming stormy seas, chopping down a tree that was possessed by a demon, and saving three innocent soldiers from being put to death. In , the Italian city of Bari mounted an expedition to locate the tomb of the Christian Saint and procure his remains in order to attract tourism to the area. The reliquary of St Nicholas was desecrated by Italian sailors and the spoils were taken to Bari, where they are kept to this day.
In they built a cathedral dedicated to Nicholas, who is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, students, and more. Christopher Columbus named a port in Haiti for St. Nicholas in , and the Spanish also named the St. Nicholas Ferry settlement now Jacksonville, Florida after him.
Numerous parallels have been drawn between Santa Claus and Odin, a major god of the Germanic peoples prior to their Christianization. According to some traditions, children would place their boots near the chimney, filling them with carrots, straw, or sugar for Sleipnir to eat. Eventually, the use of Christmas stockings began to replace boots.
In other countries, the figure of St. Nicholas was blended with local pagan folklore. This new version of the folkloric creature was obviously inspired by the Santa Claus traditions that were gradually spreading to Scandinavia.
By the end of the 19th century this tradition had also spread to Norway and Sweden, replacing the Yule Goat entirely. Even though the tradition of the Yule Goat as a bringer of presents is now gone, a straw goat is still a very common Christmas decoration in all of Scandinavia.
His feast, known as Sinterklaasfest , dates back to the Middle Ages and originally combined philanthropy to the poor with parties of Carnival-style excess. The feast takes place on December 6, and eventually came to be celebrated in many countries around the world.
Most of the iconic imagery we associate with Santa Claus actually started with Sinterklaas, who was a blend of pagan and Christian traditions. Like St. Just as Odin rode Sleipnir, Sinterklaas rides a white horse. He keeps his checklist in a big, red book he carries with him. People portraying Zwarte Piet typically wear blackface make-up, colorful clothes from the Renaissance era, curly-haired wigs, red lipstick, and earrings.
This has led to controversy, with critics calling it an offensive racial stereotype reminiscent of the Dutch colonial era. Nicholas visits children on Dec. In an adorable memo, the Belgian health and interior ministers promised good old St. And the good news is St. Belgium has reported more than , confirmed cases of COVID, according to the government in Belgium , and is currently seeing a
0コメント