St Nicholas
Dec 5th, 2006 by Tian
Tonight kids in Europe will have their socks placed beside the bed. St Nicholas will be bring them nice gifts. For centuries, St Nicholas who is originally from Asia Minor (Turkey) has been hailed as the patron of children and underprivileged, and the saint welfare, health and wealth. In old Christian tradition, he was a serious old man, how did he transform into the shopping mall attraction known as Santa Claus?
Santa is the American mutation of St Nicholas. The date of his festival, which is December 6 has been shifted to Christmas. So the feast of Christ ended up as the feast of Nicholas as well. This tradition was odd in Europe. Before the age of globalization, Europeans won’t be having Father Christian in red robe walking around churches delivering gifts to children.
See how the power of commerce in changing culture. However that is not new. I forgot, St Nicholas is also the patron of merchant. Maybe that’s why he did his image repackaging in New York.