Those who have not believed in Santa Claus for a long time can tell the hard-hitting story of this now fabulous character, who owes his appearance to a real person - St. Nicholas Archbishop of Lycia (the ruins of his residence are located near the village of Demre in modern Turkey). Among different peoples, he was recorded under different names: Nikolai Mirlikisky, Nikolai the Wonderworker, Nikolai the Pleasant, Baba Noel, Per Noel, Santa Claus.
Apparently, the gloomy deeds of Nikolai, which so strongly engraved in the memory of the people, consisted of a control trip through the subjects' territories in the autumn-winter period to collect tribute / taxes. In those days, if the tribute was not paid, it was completely normal practice of penalties to take children 7-12 years old into slavery.
We, of course, did not hold the candle, but our ears stick out so strongly from all the cracks that it took many years to repaint the black image of Nikolai Mirlikisky in white and fluffy.
Here is one of the options for its modern image. By the way, the Catholic Church, unlike the Orthodox, not so long ago, prudently decanonized Nicholas of Mirliki, excluding him from the list of saints.
Until about the middle of the 19th century, Pere Noel, Santa Claus and others who were in winter were absolutely unambiguously perceived as evil characters who take small children with them and from whom nothing good can be expected, i.e. rejoiced when he left and it was possible to live relatively calmly for a whole year, so every year "new happiness" is possible.
In the second half of the 19th century, according to all the rules of political correctness (this is actually an old technology of distortion of essence), the image began to change in a positive direction, so that nothing would remind of slavery. And by our time, the terrible tax collector has turned into just a sweet grandfather, from whom everyone is only waiting for gifts.
In Russia, in the second half of the 19th century, under Alexander II, the first attempts to create an original "Christmas grandfather" were noted, who would give gifts to Russian children, like their Western peers, "old Ruprecht" is mentioned in 1861 (we will explain about him a little later) and in 1870 Saint Nicholas or "grandfather Nicholas". These were isolated attempts that did not take root. In 1886, Frost appeared for the first time, and by the beginning of the 20th century the familiar image of Santa Claus was already taking shape. But then the revolution of 1917, bans on all church holidays, and Santa Claus, as an obligatory character of the New Year - and not Christmas - holiday is revived already in Soviet times and refers to the end of the 1930s, when, after several years of prohibition, it was again allowed tree.
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Let's go back to the 19th century and see what has survived from the dark prehistory of Santa Claus Nikolaus. In Russia, there is a certain "babay" who is dangerous and takes away small children. Father Nikolay in Turkish is Baba Noel. In Turkish, the stress is on the second syllable, and V. I. Dahl notes what has already been transformed: "Children are frightened by the babayka, the old woman, and here production from the woman and from the old woman converge."
In Germany, the analogue of Babai is Krampus. He walks with Santa Claus and takes naughty children. “One more creature found in the Alps on Nikolaev day is the krampus. He is scary and shaggy, with horns, long teeth and a tail. According to legend, good children are rewarded by Nikolai, and bad ones are punished by krampus. With long rods, cow tails and bells, in groups and alone, the krumpuses walk the streets of villages and towns and frighten passers-by. The analogue of Krampus in terms of the tasks performed is the image of the Christmas soldier Ruprecht, who also goes from house to house with rods and whips or takes small children with him.
Interestingly, if initially Krampus (Ruprecht) is Santa Claus-Nikolaus's assistant and a convenient distribution of roles "White Knight-Black Knight" = "Good Tsar and Bad Boyars" is obtained, then then the images are completely separated - the black forces seem to exist on their own, and the "good king" is gaining points of a positive character. However, divide consciousness and rule …
Here they are together:
In the old versions of the legends, Krampus kidnaps especially naughty children, takes them to his terrible castle and dumps them into the sea, which is consistent with the role of his assistant Santa Claus - Nicholas of Mirlikiy, who is the patron saint of seafarers. Indeed, slaves were sent to their destination by sea.
Here Krampus seems to be wielding by himself, but the purpose of the actions is still clearly visible - children in shackles are taken into slavery:
Then, gradually, the image of Krampus degenerates into a kind of scarecrow, which is itself shackled, that is, the chains turn into a neutral attribute like some "metalhead".
Instead of kidnapping children, he only punishes them - flogs them with rods or only frightens them:
Currently, the role of Krampus is gradually decreasing, remaining only in some areas of Bavaria and Austria, where December 5 is even celebrated with a special "Krampus Day" (Krampustag). On this day, residents dress in such fearsome costumes and scare passers-by and neighbors, without risking getting hit on the head with a bottle in return. Krampus does not give gifts, he specializes in punishing naughty children, scaring them:
And now the image of an almost funny decorative and scary Krampus appears, in whom all the attributes remain - a basket with children, shackles, rods, but now this is not kidnapping, but sledding:
We saw how the image of the evil helper Santa Claus slowly degenerated into a kind of funny scarecrow, an excuse to fool around and get joked. And what about Santa Claus himself? He, having separated from his evil assistant, also gradually changed his image towards a good-natured old man with gifts.
In this postcard on the left, Santa Claus seems to be doing the same thing as his assistant Krampus on the right, but somehow kindly, as if scaring. The plot is the same, but the essence has disappeared:
And here everything becomes a toy - both the saber and the child:
And finally, we get an almost wandering monk. Where are the original episcopal outfits, where the devil is the helper, where are the kidnapped children in a sack or in shackles? The plot is indicated, but distorted beyond recognition. Learn how to correctly correct the image …
It turns out that the same story happened with “Kind Santa Claus” from Lapland - Yollupukki and his image strongly resembles the already familiar Krampus: “Few people know, but the kind Christmas grandfather who lives in Lapland is actually a rather dubious character in mythology. One of its historical names is Youlupukki, which means “Christmas goat” in Suomi.
In general, the image of a good-natured, rosy-cheeked old man in a red caftan appeared relatively recently. Back in the 19th century, he was portrayed as an evil creature in a goat's skin with horns, who comes into the house solely to demand drinks from the owners and scare the children. He boiled naughty children alive in a cauldron, and used red deer as the main food for the winter.
Initially, the pagan custom gradually “Christianized”, became more humane and, more recently, has completely turned into an advertising character for “Coca-Cola”. The horned villain from Lapland has been forever replaced by a "laughing" bumpkin with a bag of gifts. Judging by the surviving illustrations, the ancient prototype of Santa was much more colorful and the children just listened to him …"