Seeing a spattering of news reports on Santa traditions, I began to wonder how many identities he has. The Fact Monster has this list of Santa's names in various countries. Some of them with pages in Wikipedia are Ded Moroz (Russia), Mikulás (Hungary and adjacent countries), Père Noël (France and French-speaking countries), Saint Nicholas (originally Greek, he is commemorated and revered among Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, and Orthodox Christians), and Joulupukki (Finnish). There are more, so check the list at Fact Monster.
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| Bjoertvedt, St Nicholas (270 AD), Wikipedia |
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The version of Christmas most practiced in America and Britain is based on Yuletide, a religious festival from the Germanic peoples. According to Wikipedia:
The events of Yule are generally held to have centred around Midwinter (although specific dating is a matter of debate), and feasting, drinking, and sacrifice (blót) were involved. Scholar Rudolf Simek comments that the pagan Yule feast "had a pronounced religious character" and comments that "it is uncertain whether the Germanic Yule feast still had a function in the cult of the dead and in the veneration of the ancestors, a function which the mid-winter sacrifice certainly held for the West European Stone and Bronze Ages." The traditions of the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar (Sonargöltr) stilll reflected in the Christmas ham, Yule singing, and others stem from Yule customs, and customs which Simek takes as "indicat[ing] the significance of the feast in pre-Christian times."
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| Mark Grant, "Stonehenge Sunrise 1980s," Wikipedia |
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At Santa's Net you can find a list of Christmas traditions around the world. In Japan the gift-bringer is Hotei-osho (to me he looks a lot like Budai, a representation of contentment). In China Santa is called Dun Che Lao Ren (Christmas Old Man).
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| Zaius13, Dun Che Lao Ren, tumblr |
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It's beginning to look like gift-giving is the key theme of Christmases around the world.
-- Marge
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