E Contrario

Merry Xmas! In our modern age, Christmas has become more and more like a day for Santa Claus; rather than a mass for Christ. Children got excited with sock-full of gifts and funny white-bearded man in red-robe ho-ho-ho around shopping malls. Thanks to commercialism, Santa’s has overshadowed Christ in Xmas (we now even spell it the American way)!

I only learned that originally Santa Claus has nothing to do with Christmas day when I was livig in the Netherlands. The prototype of Santa was the Dutch version of St. Nicholas, pronounced as Sinter Nikolass or in short Sinterklaas.

St. Nicholas was patron for seafarers and children. In Amsterdam on the sea front there is a beautiful church dedicated to St. Nicholas. He has his own feast on 6 December. The synthesizing probably took place in New York when it was a Dutch colony known as New Amsterdam. New York still maintain name like Harlem, after the town Haarlem near Amsterdam.

The celebration of Sinterklaas is common throughout Germanic cultures across Europe. The American Santa Claus is also an adulteration from Christmas Father in Nordic and Slavic cultures. The Dutch Sinterklaas comes Holland every year in a steamboat via Spain. He travelled with his companions Zwarte Piet who are black boys in medieval outfits. Some said that they are Moors.

The original St. Nicholas comes from Asia Minor, today Turkey. The American Santa has a Nordic home. Santa Claus has traveled along the path of evolution and is now a composite personality which includes all cultural elements of the early migrants in America. Commercialism has promoted a lot of phony cultures. Santa’s popularity maybe a symbol of American global commercialism, but Santa is a product of cross-cultural interaction.

Just imagine, a Turkish bishop is having such a great following across the globe. Santa is now committed to ‘secularized’ life, and his activities are beyond the confines of any particular religion. As far as spreading the message of compassion and love is concerned, the cult of Santa Claus enjoys greater universal appeal than the religion of Christ.

To all of you: Merry Christmas! Selamat Hari Natal! Joyeux Noel! God Jul! Zalig Kerstfeast! Feliz Navidad!

St. Nicholas Church, Amsterdam