OUR MODERN SANTA CLAUS….THE REST OF THE STORY

 

The Truth About Santa

THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT THE
JOLLY FAT MAN FROM THE LAND OF THE SNOW AND ICE
(COMMONLY KNOWN AS SANTA CLAUS)

You may want to tell me, "Oh, we've heard about Saint Nicholas the Roman Catholic for decades, so what do you have that's new?" Well I have a great deal, so keep reading, because you probably have never heard what I'm going to relate to you. I cannot remember it ever being written about in any Church of God publication (but possibly it has at some time, somewhere). This truth I discovered way back in the winter of 1961/62, when I was discovering all the false pagan adaptions and adoptions in our common Christianity. I was at the local library investigating all the books I could find on the subject of our so called "Christian Feast." A fascinating and well documented book I found was by Francis Weiser of the Roman Catholic church, called "Christian Feasts and Customs." He relates the truth about how we got our modern Santa Claus, the fellow with the jolly "OH,OH" - white beard, and coming from the land of the north, with its ice and snow. This friendly guy was one of the many gods that man invented. We shall let Weiser tell us the story, and discover the English founders of the USA nation were not so religiously pure as many want to believe. Quote: "After the Reformation, the feast and veneration of Saint Nicholas, the patron of little children, were abolished in many countries. Soon people in those countries forgot the saint who had once been so dear to them. Only here and there a trace of him would linger on; as, for example, in the pageant of the 'Boy Bishop' in England, and in the name Pelznickel (Fur Nicholas), which many people in western Germany gave to their Christmas Man (Pelsnichol - now among the Pennsylvania Dutch). When the Dutch came to America and established the colony of New Amsterdam, their children enjoyed the traditional 'visit of Saint Nicholas' on December 5, for the Dutch had kept this ancient Catholic custom even after the reformation. Later, when England took over the colony and it became New York, the kindly figure of Sinter Klaas(pronounced like Santa Claus) soon aroused among the English children the desire of having such a heavenly visitor come to their homes, too. "The English settlers were glad and willing to comply with the anxious wish of their children. However, the figure of a Catholic saint and bishop was not acceptable in their eyes, especially since many of them were Presbyterians, to whom a bishop was repugnant. In addition, they did not celebrate a feast of saints according to the ancient Catholic calendar. "The dilemma was solved by transferring the visit of the mysterious man whom the Dutch called santa Claus from December 5 to Christmas, and by introducing a radical change in the figure itself. It was not merely a 'disguise', but the ancient saint was completely replaced by an entirely different character. Behind the name Santa Claus actually stands the figure of the pagan Germanic god THOR (after whom Thursday is named). Some details about THOR from ancient German mythology will show the origin of the modern Santa Claus tale: "THOR was the god of the peasants and the common people. He was represented as an elderly man, jovial and friendly, of HEAVY BUILD, with a LONG WHITE BEARD. His element was the FIRE, his color RED. The rumble and roar of thunder were said to be caused by the rolling of his CHARIOT, for he alone among the gods never rode on horseback but drove in a chariot drawn by two white goats (called - CRACKER and GNASHER). He WAS FIGHTING THE GIANTS OF ICE AND SNOW, AND THUS BECAME THE YULE- god. He was said to live in the 'northland where he had his palace among the icebergs. By our pagan forefathers he was considered as the cheerful and friendly god, never harming the humans, but, rather, helping and protecting them. The FIREPLACE in every home was especially sacred to him, and he was said to come down through the chimney into his element, the fire." Well, that is how we came to acquire our present modern Santa Claus. The so called religious "puritans" did not stay very pure (if they really ever were) for very long, but even added more paganism and falsehoods to the established false festivals. Ah, as Paul Harvey used to say on his all the facts radio show, "Now you know the…..  rest of the story." Written by Keith Hunt