Real growth always includes an element of struggle, difficulty, often pain. I researched the origins of my childhood traditions. I found lots of information, then I had to sort through it all to decide what is truth and what is the philosophies of men. What is good, what is not so good. We are to judge something as good or evil by its fruits, if it persuades me to come unto Christ, and serve him, it is good. If it inviteth or enticeth to sin, it is evil.
St. Nicolas as we know him originated from several different customs of different countries. St. Nicolas was born in the 3rd Century A.D. His wealthy parents had raised him as a Christian. Orphaned as a young man, he followed the Savior's counsel to sell all that he had, and give the money to the poor. The story is told of a poor family with 3 daughters, They were to poor to provide a dowry for the girls, and hardly had money for food. The daughters were destined to become slaves. Nicolas heard of their situation. On the eve of the day that the oldest daughter was to be sold in to slavery, she washed her stocking and hung them to dry on the mantle. That night Nicolas came and threw in a bag of gold threw the window. It landed in one of her stockings. She was provided a dowry and saved from slavery. As the other daughters grew and were to be sold, he repeated his tossing of gold threw the window. Some stories have it land in a shoe. Thus many countries have children leave out shoes. There are many other stories of Nicolas kindness and giving, especially as a protector of children. St. Nicolas' feast day is December 6th, the day he died. In Holland children leave out shoes and it is the Christ child who leaves money in their shoe.
December 25 and Saturnalia. By modern revelation we know that Jesus was born on April 6th. Roman, pagan celebrations of Saturnalia took place for a week starting Dec 17. The solstice, December 21, was considered a birth of the sun, as it was the beginning of days getting longer. There are lots of conflicting views as to how benevolent or evil the celebration of Saturnalia was. Likewise there a conflicting theories as to weather December 25 was declared as Christmas because of a calendrical theory or decision, or as a means of Christians molding a pagan festival time to suit their own beliefs. Most agree the on the latter. It was about the 4th century that Christians began celebrating Christmas. There is a good case that Saturnalia's customs have influenced our Christmas celebration. Singing in the streets, gift giving, worshiping of trees, and bringing them in the house, and general merry-making and revelry were all part of Saturnalia. At times one time Saturnalia included human sacrifice, which was later replaced with eating human-shaped biscuits or what we now call gingerbread men.
I remember a Relief Society activity in California, where a sister who loved languages and history, and was from Norway, taught us about the history of the Scandanavian traditions. She told us there were pagan origins of a visiting man leaving gifts, and the families having to leave him a gift of food in exchange, that origanited before Christianity and St. Nicolas entered those countries. But eventually the traditions mingled.
Santa Clause as we know him today, a jolly, rotund character in a red suit, driving a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer, coming down a chimney with a sack full of toys for children, is a collection of many different cultures adding on traditions that derive from both St. Nicolas, the Christmas story, and Saturnalia customs. The origins came from different European countries mixing the ideas of the two holidays. Most of these traditions were solidified in the early 1800s by the poem The Night Before Christmas and a cartoon by Thomas Nast that illustrated it. Elves were added to aid Santa Clause in the work of making toys for so many children. All of this quickly evolved into commercialism.
I first found much information that was very negative, even dark and evil, about the pagan origins of many "Christmas" traditions. It really upset and angered me. It felt like Christianity had given up Christ and adopted pagan and worldly traditions instead. For a time I let my pendulum swing to one extreme, so that I wanted nothing to do with any tradition that appeared to have a pagan origin, or that was not obviously focused on Christ. In my early days, even Scrooge and the Grinch seemed to have nothing to do with Christ. (I know, reader, you are either laughing or cringing at that.) They were just stories about being kind, I was angered that they left out Christ. In my passion, I tried to share these thoughts with my sisters. They were not warmly received. :-) The Lord was patient with me though, and continued to teach me.
A turning point was when I found an article that discussed a motive for this merging of the Pagan and Christian holidays. There is evidence of the Catholic leadership wanting to create a celebration of Christ's birth at Saturnalia as a means of helping to convert pagans to Christianity. Another idea presented was that in predominately pagan countries, the minority Christians were forced into the festivals as it was a time when no business could be done, so to make the best of it, they chose to place Christian meaning to it, and create their own purpose for celebrating. Both of those reasons fit under "good." I was trying to use Christ's words of "by their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, then they are good also." Moroni 7:5
In this world there are so many experiences that can be good or bad, depending on what we make of them. We can't choose what others do, or the consequences of their choices, but we can choose what we do...
St. Nicolas as we know him originated from several different customs of different countries. St. Nicolas was born in the 3rd Century A.D. His wealthy parents had raised him as a Christian. Orphaned as a young man, he followed the Savior's counsel to sell all that he had, and give the money to the poor. The story is told of a poor family with 3 daughters, They were to poor to provide a dowry for the girls, and hardly had money for food. The daughters were destined to become slaves. Nicolas heard of their situation. On the eve of the day that the oldest daughter was to be sold in to slavery, she washed her stocking and hung them to dry on the mantle. That night Nicolas came and threw in a bag of gold threw the window. It landed in one of her stockings. She was provided a dowry and saved from slavery. As the other daughters grew and were to be sold, he repeated his tossing of gold threw the window. Some stories have it land in a shoe. Thus many countries have children leave out shoes. There are many other stories of Nicolas kindness and giving, especially as a protector of children. St. Nicolas' feast day is December 6th, the day he died. In Holland children leave out shoes and it is the Christ child who leaves money in their shoe.I remember a Relief Society activity in California, where a sister who loved languages and history, and was from Norway, taught us about the history of the Scandanavian traditions. She told us there were pagan origins of a visiting man leaving gifts, and the families having to leave him a gift of food in exchange, that origanited before Christianity and St. Nicolas entered those countries. But eventually the traditions mingled.
Santa Clause as we know him today, a jolly, rotund character in a red suit, driving a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer, coming down a chimney with a sack full of toys for children, is a collection of many different cultures adding on traditions that derive from both St. Nicolas, the Christmas story, and Saturnalia customs. The origins came from different European countries mixing the ideas of the two holidays. Most of these traditions were solidified in the early 1800s by the poem The Night Before Christmas and a cartoon by Thomas Nast that illustrated it. Elves were added to aid Santa Clause in the work of making toys for so many children. All of this quickly evolved into commercialism.A turning point was when I found an article that discussed a motive for this merging of the Pagan and Christian holidays. There is evidence of the Catholic leadership wanting to create a celebration of Christ's birth at Saturnalia as a means of helping to convert pagans to Christianity. Another idea presented was that in predominately pagan countries, the minority Christians were forced into the festivals as it was a time when no business could be done, so to make the best of it, they chose to place Christian meaning to it, and create their own purpose for celebrating. Both of those reasons fit under "good." I was trying to use Christ's words of "by their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, then they are good also." Moroni 7:5
In this world there are so many experiences that can be good or bad, depending on what we make of them. We can't choose what others do, or the consequences of their choices, but we can choose what we do...
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