![]() Santa Clause is depicted as shouting to his reindeer in a hurricane-like flight. Odin’s flying Eight legged horse is a direct comparison to Santa Clause’s eight flying reindeer. Odin is depicted in 13th century texts (which were themselves transcribed from oral traditions dating to antiquity) as leading a great Yule hunt on the eve of the Solstice while riding his eight legged steed Sleipnir through the sky. Right: Odin as depicted in 1901 by Johannes Gehrts. Left: Santa as depicted in Malls across the Country. Santa Clause has more in common with Odin than with a Bishop from Asia. In northern Europe, particularly among the Germanic and Scandinavian tribes, there was a different gift giver: Odin. At least, it is adequate evidence to children watching their favorite characters explain it. That Saint Nicholas of Myra’s “feast day” happens within the same month as Christmas and that he handed out gifts is all the evidence necessary to prove that Santa Clause is a crude caricature of the good Saint. Instead, we are told that Santa Clause is a modern invention of commercial retailers who perverted the true “father Christmas”. There is no attempt to explain why pine trees, wreaths, snow, and the north pole became associated with someone from Turkey. Somehow, we are to believe that over the course of 2,000 years, a guy putting drachmas in shoes morphed into a jolly man with a white beard who flew eight reindeer through the winter sky to deliver gifts on the eve of the Solstice. After he was canonized as “Saint Nicholas”, his feast day was attributed to the anniversary of his death. He lived from 260 ’till his death on December 6th, 343 C.E. Nicholas was reputed to have been a secret gift giver who left coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him. At the time Lycia was a Hellenic colony in the Roman province of Asia. The Christian named Nicholas of Myra was a Greek Bishop in Lycia, now part of modern day Turkey. Despite several centuries or repetition, this tale remains untrue and is nothing but an invention by Christians to legitimize their plagiarisms of Heathen lore. The makers of the revisionist tale obviously are aiming to “remind” its young and impressionable viewers that their plagiarized and made-up god, and all of it’s ephemeral fairy tales are the “true meaning of Christmas”. Recognizing the cues of a evangelical propaganda piece, I quickly switched the program to Sponge Bob, annoyed that such an overt lie could be fed to children in such a nefarious way. When the Dutch adopted Saint Nicholas as their Patron saint and then came to America, they brought the story of Kris Kringle with them and that evolved into present day Santa Clause. If a child was bad he would give the child sticks instead. The program went on to explain that Saint Nicholas, from 4th century Turkey, would carry a sack from which he would give children gifts. “Do you know who Santa really is? He was a real person named Saint Nicholas” said the little boy to his animated friends. From the kitchen I could hear the characters on the television having a dialog. As he sat watching whatever “kid friendly” looking title I found in the netflix cue, I went to make myself a plate. The other day, I put on some cartoons for my son to watch while he ate his breakfast. Georg von Rosen – Oden som vandringsman, 1886 (Odin, the Wanderer)
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