- YOU MUST RETURN SANTA HRYAKUS.
- What for? For the sake of peace, goodwill and the ringing of magic bells? Yes, no one cares! He's just an old fat clown who makes people have fun in fear! And I survived all this for the sake of some old man who climbs the children's bedrooms?
- NO. FOR THE SUN TO RISE.
Terry Pratchett "Santa Boar"
Santa Claus, Santa Claus, Per Noel, Saint Nicholas - winter gift givers for good children (in fact, for everyone) flooded the entire near-Christian world. These characters make the coldest and gloomiest time of the year a little magical, help brighten up the endless anticipation of spring. But at the very beginning of their ancient history, they were just as cold and gloomy. Humanity has come a long way before celebrating victory over its winter fears.
Dead Frost
The farther north people lived, the more difficult their relationship with nature was. And the more intricate they imagined the personifications of the elemental forces with which they have to fight in order to survive. It is to the incarnations of the winter cold that the image of a bearded good man with a bag of gifts goes back. Only in ancient times he was not at all kind, and there was only one gift in his arsenal: a chance to survive another winter. An invaluable gift for the times when forty was considered old age.
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Frost, snow and ice, winter deep darkness in the minds of our ancestors were associated with death. In Scandinavian myths, the kingdom of the dead is located in the icy north, where the terrible goddess Hel, the prototype of the Snow Queen from Andersen's fairy tale, rules. The houses of modern Santa Clauses are also placed in the north: Lapland, Greenland, Alaska, the North Pole, the "cold pole" Oymyakon in Yakutia … The Russian Great Ustyug of the Vologda region and the Belarusian Belovezhskaya Pushcha are perhaps the southernmost places where this grandfather was settled. Fortunately, modern Santa Clauses do not want to kill us. And they wanted our ancestors. And they cheated as best they could, paying off with victims.
On the longest night of the year - the winter solstice, December 21-22 - the ancient Germans and Celts celebrated the Yule holiday. There was something to be happy about: after that night the sun “turned into spring” and the day began to lengthen. People decorated houses with evergreen branches of holly, ivy and mistletoe, drank hot ale with spices, burned a special "Yule log" in the fireplace, and went to visit neighbors. After the Christianization of Europe, these customs became attributes of Christmas and New Years, coming a little later than Yule.
Yule Log - not only decoration, but also a traditional Christmas dessert (roll with cream).
Among the Germans, Yule was dedicated to Wotan (aka Odin), the god of wisdom, the lord of life and death. According to the legend, first retold by Jacob Grimm, Wotan rides across the sky that night at the head of the Wild Hunt, introducing unwary travelers to his retinue. Perhaps this is where the tradition of "Christmas is a family holiday" is rooted: on the longest night of the year, all family members should sit at their home and not wander along the roads. Wotan was often portrayed as a long-bearded old man leaning on a spear, wearing a cloak and a wanderer's hat - do you recognize Grandfather Frost in a sheepskin coat and with a staff? Sacrifices were made to Wotan on Yule - it is reliably known that these were horses and pigs, but it is possible that in the most ancient times the sacrifices were human.
Slavic Moroz (Mraz) also demanded sacrifices. An echo of the ceremony of human sacrifice can be seen in the fairy tale "Frost". Remember the girl who was almost frozen to death, but then generously presented as a reward for meekness? So, the young virgins, who were sent to the forest every winter as a sacrifice to the winter god, really froze to death. But in the pagan consciousness, such a death meant joining the very elemental force that everyone feared. And if Morozko accepted the sacrifice, it means that this year he will be kind.
In Ukrainian and Belarusian villages, as early as the 19th century, Moroz was ritually “invited” to Christmas kutya (sweet wheat porridge with dried fruits) - the harmless equivalent of a human sacrifice. If we remember that kutia was also a traditional dish at Slavic commemorations, the ritual acquires additional depth, turning also into a way of communication with the spirits of deceased ancestors.
But how did these capricious and insatiable elements become kind and generous donors? For this to happen, another, non-pagan character had to appear in world mythology.
In Terry Pratchett's book "Santa Pig", the lost spirit of Terror replaces Death - because anthropomorphic personifications should help each other.
Santa miracle worker
In the III century AD in the Roman province of Lycia, in Asia Minor, there lived a young man Nicholas, who from childhood decided to devote himself to religion. When his parents died, he distributed all his considerable inheritance to the poor, and he himself went to study with his uncle the bishop, who later ordained him a priest. Over time, Nicholas became Bishop of Myra, loved by the people for his kindness and generosity to those in need. Moreover, he showed this generosity in secret - but still for some reason it became known that it was the bishop who was the mysterious benefactor.
One of the legends about Nicholas says that he heard about three beautiful sisters, whose father was poor and could not give them a dowry, therefore, instead of marrying his daughters, he planned to sell them to a brothel. To save the girls from this fate, Nikolai collected three bags of gold and threw them into the sisters' house - according to different versions of the legend, through a window or chimney. And these bags ended up in stockings, hung out near the hearth to dry.
The depiction of St. Nicholas in the Catholic tradition. By the way, like Wotan, he is considered the patron saint of travelers.
In memory of the generosity of Saint Nicholas - and he was named a saint during his lifetime - the day of his memory (December 6, or December 18 according to the new style) became a holiday in which it is necessary to give gifts and help the poor, ritually joining that truly Christian way of life, which was led by the bishop-non-silver. The children were told that Saint Nicholas himself brings gifts - a kind gray-bearded old man in a long bishop's attire and a high headdress (miter). In order for the gift to end up in a children's sock, which was specially hung by the fireplace, Saint Nicholas allegedly climbs to the roof of every house and descends along the chimney.
During the Reformation, when Protestants fought the Catholic custom of venerating saints as idolatry, the ritual of giving gifts shifted to Christmas - in memory of the gifts that the three wise men brought to the Christ child. Saint Nicholas fell out of favor, surviving as the main Christmas benefactor in only a few countries. Now many Polish, Ukrainian, Austrian, Czech, Hungarian, Croatian and some Dutch children receive the main gifts "for good behavior throughout the year" not on Christmas or New Year, but on the day of the memory of St. Nicholas - December 18. However, some people manage to beg their parents for a gift for all winter holidays. If you remember yourself as a child, you should know how to do this.
In the Netherlands and Belgium, St. Nicholas is accompanied by Black Peter - servant-Moor, leading his lineage from one of the Christmas magicians-donors.
The holiday comes to us
Saint Nicholas moved from Holland to America - along with a wave of Dutch immigrants in the 18th century. They called him Sinterklaas - hence the name "Santa Claus" we know. True, at first he was only called that in New York, which originally belonged to Holland and was called New Amsterdam. The English Puritans, who shared the northeast of the present United States with the Dutch, did not celebrate Christmas - they generally had problems with fun.
In 1821 Sinterklaas first sits in a sleigh pulled by a reindeer.
But in English folklore there was an old character named Father Christmas, which symbolized not the Christian custom of selflessly sharing with others, but rather a pagan love for unbridled joy during the holidays. Father Christmas was imagined as a fat, bearded man in a short jacket with fur, a lover of drinking beer, eating and dancing to the groovy melodies. In the Victorian era, when the influence of Protestants in England weakened (most of them managed to emigrate to America), Father Christmas also got the mission of giving gifts to children. And in America, Sinterklaas, who turned into Santa Claus, got his looks and love for fun ("Ho-ho-ho!"). The red color of clothing is all that remains in America from Bishop Nicholas.
Father Christmas in 1836 is more reminiscent of the god of wine and fun Dionysus (Bacchus).
In 1821, Sinterklaas appeared on the pages of a children's book by an unknown author "A New Year's Gift for Children from Five to Twelve", and in 1823 - in Clement Clark Moore's poem "The Visit of St. Nicholas", now known to American children as "The Night Before Christmas". It is written on behalf of the father of the family, who wakes up on Christmas night and watches as Santa's sleigh pulled by reindeer fly through the sky, and as Santa himself descends the chimney to arrange gifts for children in stockings hung by the fireplace.
Moore's poem names eight reindeer from Santa's team: Desher, Dancer, Prenser, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen. The first six are English (Swift, Dancer, Skakun, Frisky, Comet, Cupid), the last two are German (Thunder and Lightning). The ninth and main deer, Rudolph, appeared more than a hundred years later, in 1939, in a poem by Robert L. May. A feature of Rudolph is a huge shining nose, with which he illuminates the path for the whole team.
A 1931 advertisement presents Santa as the busiest person in the world who needs a break to freshen up with a cool drink.
This scene has been repeated constantly since then - on Christmas cards, in movies and cartoons, as well as in the stories of parents who want their children to believe in Santa Claus, and not in the excruciating search for gifts in the hectic pre-Christmas sales. A tradition has emerged to leave a treat for Santa by the fireplace on Christmas night: milk and cookies in America and Canada, a glass of sherry or a bottle of beer with a piece of meat pie in England and Australia. Yes, Santa Claus became part of the culture of all English-speaking countries, returning across the ocean to his ancestral homeland of Britain, and from there reaching Australia. By the way, in 2008 he was granted Canadian citizenship.
And the fact that Santa became known to the whole world must be blamed on the deity of the twentieth century - His Majesty Marketing. In the 1930s, a cheerful, ruddy old man in red and white clothes began to appear in ads for Coca-Cola. At the same time, the actors portraying Santa began to work on the holidays in decorated shopping centers and at Christmas markets - to communicate with children, listen to their cherished desires and subtly promote goods.
This advertisement was already so widespread that it gave rise to an enduring urban legend that the canonical appearance of Santa Claus was invented by Coca-Cola. In fact, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, he often appeared in illustrations in this form. And in advertising its appearance was first used not by "Coca-Cola" - Santa and before that he had to promote mineral water and ginger ale.
Cotton beard
The history of the Russian Father Frost in the form in which we know him also has a few years. Back in the 19th century, he was a character in Russian folklore and children's books (for example, Odoevsky's fairy tale "Moroz Ivanovich"), from time to time he looked at public children's Christmas trees - but rarely. Parents in the Russian Empire told their children that the baby Jesus brought them gifts, or they honestly admitted that they themselves gave them. The pagan Frost was not approved by the Orthodox Church, and the children were afraid of the bearded old man - in their minds Frost was the harsh winter ruler from fairy tales. When in 1910 such a grandfather appeared at a holiday in a kindergarten, singing a song to the verses of Nekrasov "Not the wind rages over the forest", the kids burst into tears with fear. The teacher had to remove the fake beard from the actor to make Frost look more human.
Meeting Morozko and the meek stepdaughter performed by Ivan Bilibin.
The revolution of 1917 almost put an end to the winter holiday: Christmas, like other dates of the church calendar, the Bolsheviks decided to write off for scrap. Christmas trees and other ritual winter entertainments were erased from the life of the new Soviet state - in 1929, Christmas officially became an ordinary working day.
But in the 1930s, the "left excesses" began to be abandoned. In November 1935, Stalin uttered the famous phrase: “Life has become better, comrades! Life has become more fun. " Taking this opportunity, Pavel Postyshev, a candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, who dreamed of returning the holiday to children, in December appeared in the newspaper Pravda with a proposal: to organize holiday trees for Soviet children, clearing them of religious attributes. So the Christmas tree star of Bethlehem turned into a five-pointed Soviet star, instead of Christmas it was decided to massively celebrate the New Year, Christmastide with traditional dressing in costumes became a New Year's carnival. The atmosphere of the holiday has also changed: Christmas was a quiet family celebration, while the New Year was supposed to be celebrated noisily and cheerfully.
Illustration of the 1950s for the fairy tale "Moroz Ivanovich" by Vladimir Odoevsky.
The only problem was with Santa Claus: the children were still afraid of the old man in white clothes. To mitigate the effect, he was accompanied by the granddaughter of the Snow Maiden, affectionately calling Frost "grandfather", and a whole retinue of forest animals. In addition, in the fabulous performances that were played out on children's Christmas trees, Santa Claus acted as a kind wizard, a kind of Gandalf, saving the New Year from the intrigues of Baba Yaga, Leshey, Koshchei the Immortal and other evil spirits. Little by little, over the course of two decades, Santa Claus in the Soviet Union became as harmless, albeit powerful, kind-hearted, like Santa Claus in the West. Only he usually dresses not in red, but in white and blue - shades of snowy winter twilight. Only in recent years does Frost sometimes appear in red, and his headdress acquires the features of the miter of St. Nicholas.
If the Snow Maiden is the granddaughter of Santa Claus, then who are her parents? This question is asked by all babies, having barely learned to understand family ties. Apparently, the Snow Maiden is not a pale beauty melting with love from Ostrovsky's fairy-tale play (in the play she was called the daughter of Frost and Spring, and not her granddaughter), but one of the girls who were once sacrificed to Frost. He calls her a granddaughter only because by age she is suitable for him as a granddaughter.
* * *
The New Year trees are all that remains in our culture from the ancient ritual of meeting Winter and begging Frost to be really kind. This holiday has all the necessary attributes and ritual actions: a decorated Christmas tree as the embodiment of the world tree and a symbol of immortality (because it is evergreen), driving round dances (a ceremonial dance that symbolized the sun in Indo-European culture), playing out a mystery about the victory of Light over Darkness … Everything serves that the same purpose for which our ancestors made sacrifices to Wotan or Frost: fearlessly to face cold Death face to face and in a fair fight to win the right to survive another winter.
Have a lot of fun on New Year's Eve. It depends on whether the spring sun rises.
Alexandra Koroleva