In fact, the initial drawing by Haddon Sundblom of St. The story of Father Christmas dates back in the early fourth century. During that time there was a Bishop called St. Nicholas who lived in the small town of Myra, Asia Minor currently known as Turkey.
His family was rich and had a lot of possessions. However, his parents died when he was still young and, therefore, as the only child he had to inherit all that wealth. Nicholas was blessed with a good heart; that of giving and sharing. He was a kind man who had the reputation of helping the people in need.
Other than that, he was fond of giving the town residents secret gifts. There are many legendary stories that praise the good deeds of St. Little is known if these stories are true but what is evident is that he was a man of the people who had everyone's interest in heart. After the reformation of northern Europe in the 16th century, stories about St.
Nicholas became less popular. But hey, children had to be gifted, especially during Christmas. For that reason, the St. Nicholas name was changed in various European countries, although his character remained the same. He was portrayed as an old man who delivered Christmas presents to Children. Ancient American people knew him as 'Kris Kringle' christened from the word Christkind.
Nicholas' stories with them. They used to call him 'Sinterklaas' and this is what is currently pronounced as 'Santa Claus'. So next time you meet your friends inform them where the name that they get excited about during every Christmas came from. Initially, there was a system that defined color symbolism. Until the Newtonian version was invented in the early 17th century, this system was still being used.
In the past colors used to be very important as they represented different occasions. For example, white was used to symbolize purity whereas purple was used to signify royalty. Currently, the red color is found in almost every decoration that is associated with Christmas.
It is normally used hand in hand with color green, which is normally used in Christmas trees and gift ribbons. But what does it really signify?
There are different explanations from different people. Some say that in the past the indoor green trees were used to mystery performances to indicate the Tree of Good and Evil. The red apples that normally hang on the Christmas trees represent the forbidden fruit this is the fruit that was eaten by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Another explanation is that the green color symbolizes the rebirth of Christ, and the red color represents His blood. This gives a Christian outlook of the red-green color combination that is applied in the decoration of Christmas trees. It is important to note that this color combination was not invented by Victorians as many traditions have put it. These color symbols were passed down from different generations and they might probably have different meanings today. The color coding used today seems to go many years back than "Christmas" does.
However, the color symbols still brighten up the mood of Christmas just the way Father Christmas could have liked. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast.
In the grand scheme of things, Christmas is a modest affair, financially speaking. After all, you would have lunch anyway, pay your rent, fill your car with petrol and buy clothes to wear.
However, for certain retail sectors - notably jewellery, department stores, electronics, and useless tat - Christmas is a very big deal indeed. Economists and moralisers do not often find themselves having common cause, but on the subject of Christmas we do: we agree that a lot of Christmas spending is wasteful. Time, energy and natural resources are poured into creating Christmas gifts which the recipients often do not much like.
Santa's gifts rarely miss the mark; he is, after all, the world's number one toy expert. The same cannot be said of the rest of us. Prof Waldfogel's most famous academic paper The Deadweight Loss of Christmas tried to measure the gap between how much various Christmas gifts had cost, and how much the recipients valued them - beyond the warm glow of "the thought that counts". This wastage figure seems to be fairly robust across countries.
To put it into context, that is about what the World Bank lends to developing country governments each year. And that is before pondering the strain put on the economy by squeezing the retail spending together in a single month rather than spreading it out - and the time and aggravation devoted to the process of shopping, which is not always pleasant during the December rush. So other economists have examined alternatives to clumsy gift giving. Gift cards and vouchers do not help as much as one might hope: they are often unredeemed, or resold online at a discount.
If you must buy a gift card, note that vouchers for lingerie sell well below face value on eBay, but vouchers for office supplies and coffee hold up pretty well.
Wishlists fare better. Research suggests that recipients are generally delighted to receive an item they have already specified. Givers may be deceiving themselves to think an off-piste gift will be more welcome.
Santa Claus relies on a polite wishlist from good children. Who are the rest of us to think we can do better? Or we could learn from the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge, who, Dickens declares, "knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge". On Christmas morning, the only physical gift he gave was a prize turkey. The Christmas spirits had shown him that the turkey was sorely needed. Other than that, he gave people his company and his money - including a rise for Bob Cratchit.
That's the true spirit of Christmas. Christmas in New York in the late s was a riotous affair, and the only seasonal gift you were likely to be given was a punch on the nose. Middle-class New Yorkers fancied a more sober celebration , and in the antiquarian John Pintard founded a historical society and hit on the 4th-century St Nicholas — patron saint of children and gift-giving — as the benevolent new symbol of the city.
Pintard took these traditions and grafted them on to the celebration of Christmas in New York, where a large part of the population was of Dutch heritage, with Sinterklaas itself a contraction of Sint Nicolaas emerging as Sancte Claus. The church and commercialism were starting their year-long battle. Published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel, the poem was later claimed by Clement Clarke Moore, though some scholars believe it was written by Henry Livingston Jr.
The jolly, impish, ho-ho-ho-ing Santa — a contrast to the more severe European figure, who was quite likely to give naughty children a whack with a cane — was born. The tradition of him wearing red began in the s with the American cartoonist Thomas Nast, who introduced the red suit and cap, white fur lining and buckled black belt. His image of Santa quickly became something akin to an official portrait.
0コメント