Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all! May everyone be filled with happiness and have the opportunity to spend time with your loved ones, the only ones that matter.
I have come to realise that the magic of Christmas comes only when you start to believe in magic. When you no longer think about why something happens or why something is of such then it becomes a much more enjoyable experience. For example, if you just accept Christmas for its materialistic nature rather than to question why, it is much easier to enjoy the festive season similar to how you do not question too much into a magic show just so that you can enjoy it all the more.
That being said there has been a lot of why's that I have been looking into and I would like to share a few with my fellow readers.
Who is Santa Claus?
Santa Claus was named after a saint called St Nicholas of Bari, who lived in Myra. He was born of a privileged background and, as his parents passed away at an early age, came into a lot of money in a very young age. However he was born with a heart of gold and generosity and gave out his wealth to people who needed it. For example, there was a poor man in the village that he lived in and could not marry off their daughters as he could not afford a dowry. As a result he was forced to sell them off to slavery as soon as they came of age. In the midst of night, St Nicholas would throw bags of money down the chimney that they had, which landed into the stockings which they hung to dry. At first many thought that it was a miracle from God, but it was soon found out that it was St Nicholas, a miracle of his heart. St Nicholas did this for many other people, and it became a tradition in the country to hang stockings by the chimney for a visit from St Nicholas. It soon occured to people that they didn't need to wait for St Nicholas for other people to be helped, and they could help them themselves. It soon became a tradition to give presents to others, and gifting allowed people to accept gifts without thinking of them in forms of charity and they could reciprocate in like so that they would not feel ashamed of having to sustain themselves off the charity of others.
The speed at which St Nicholas gave presents was astounding to many people, assuming that people did not emulate him, and many came up with rumours that he had become omnipresent, and could deliver presents at extreme speeds. The generosity of St Nicholas spread to other cities and they came up with many names for him, and it was lastly named Santa Claus by the Americans after first being mentioned in the press in 1773. Many of his other characteristics such as being able to fly on reindeer and being able to squeeze magically into chimneys came from Clement Moore's "A gift from St Nicholas", whom he later admitted was written by him as he was a scholar and did not want to be associated with such a childish poem when the poem picked up in popularity.
Of course, there are many more Christmas facts that I have been picking up on, but I hope that for now this would suffice to enlighten your friends and family a bit more about Christmas. I too have other things to attend to, but before that I would like to wish you a:
Merry Chritmas/ Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year :)
Cheers,
Matthew Tan
I have come to realise that the magic of Christmas comes only when you start to believe in magic. When you no longer think about why something happens or why something is of such then it becomes a much more enjoyable experience. For example, if you just accept Christmas for its materialistic nature rather than to question why, it is much easier to enjoy the festive season similar to how you do not question too much into a magic show just so that you can enjoy it all the more.
That being said there has been a lot of why's that I have been looking into and I would like to share a few with my fellow readers.
Who is Santa Claus?
Santa Claus was named after a saint called St Nicholas of Bari, who lived in Myra. He was born of a privileged background and, as his parents passed away at an early age, came into a lot of money in a very young age. However he was born with a heart of gold and generosity and gave out his wealth to people who needed it. For example, there was a poor man in the village that he lived in and could not marry off their daughters as he could not afford a dowry. As a result he was forced to sell them off to slavery as soon as they came of age. In the midst of night, St Nicholas would throw bags of money down the chimney that they had, which landed into the stockings which they hung to dry. At first many thought that it was a miracle from God, but it was soon found out that it was St Nicholas, a miracle of his heart. St Nicholas did this for many other people, and it became a tradition in the country to hang stockings by the chimney for a visit from St Nicholas. It soon occured to people that they didn't need to wait for St Nicholas for other people to be helped, and they could help them themselves. It soon became a tradition to give presents to others, and gifting allowed people to accept gifts without thinking of them in forms of charity and they could reciprocate in like so that they would not feel ashamed of having to sustain themselves off the charity of others.
The speed at which St Nicholas gave presents was astounding to many people, assuming that people did not emulate him, and many came up with rumours that he had become omnipresent, and could deliver presents at extreme speeds. The generosity of St Nicholas spread to other cities and they came up with many names for him, and it was lastly named Santa Claus by the Americans after first being mentioned in the press in 1773. Many of his other characteristics such as being able to fly on reindeer and being able to squeeze magically into chimneys came from Clement Moore's "A gift from St Nicholas", whom he later admitted was written by him as he was a scholar and did not want to be associated with such a childish poem when the poem picked up in popularity.
Of course, there are many more Christmas facts that I have been picking up on, but I hope that for now this would suffice to enlighten your friends and family a bit more about Christmas. I too have other things to attend to, but before that I would like to wish you a:
Merry Chritmas/ Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year :)
Cheers,
Matthew Tan
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