Re: Santa Claus WAS: meanings not in english

Joe Fatula wrote:


> From: "Steg Belsky" <draqonfayir@...>
> Subject: Re: Re:       meanings not in english
>
>
> > Maybe it's just because i'm not part of the Santa Claus culture, but
i've
> > never understood how telling a kid that an imaginary person gives them
> > presents (when it's really their friends and family), having them
believe
> > that for a while and then telling them that you've been lying all along
> > is supposed to be beneficial.
>
> I wonder how many people participate in (what is to me the quite
ridiculous)
> Santa Claus thing, and to what degree.  I know that at least my family
> thinks it's stupid.
Since I have been conscious, I wrote, as a kid, a letter to Baby God ("Niño
Dios", this means Baby Jesus), put it in the Christmas Tree and told my
parents when it was ready so they could read the letter, buy the toys, and
put them under the Tree where, on Christmas Eve at midnight, someone in the
family would read the card on each present and give it away to the
destinatary.  I could then open the presents, I could check on the card who
was given any particular present (my parents or any uncle or aunt) and enjoy
them.  I knew that those presents where both given by Baby God and by my
respective parent, uncle, aunt, grandma, etc.  So it was never a shock when
I knew the true: since I remember I have always knew it.

Santa?  Well, "Papá Noel" was always the one who gave the presents to the
childrens in the nothern countries just as Baby God gave them to us.  (Which
ment that their parents would be the ones actually buying the presents.)

As I grew older, I learned that I should not ask for toys or material things
to Baby God.  I had to ask him on things my parents would not buy (like
"peace in the world", or "good health to my parents").  I would ask my
parents directly on what I wanted.

Now, I am kind of agnostic.  I do believe that Santa Clause exists, just
that he is not a fat guy living in the North Pole, dressing red and flying
on a sledge pull by reindeers, but something more like the personification
of the spirit of the seasson.  Santa Claus (or Jultomten, or Papa Noël, or
Niño Dios, or the Three Wisemen, or whatever) is the seasson, the invitation
to give and to make our children happy... well, something like that.

Of course, the modern mith of Santa Claus, is a sincretism of Lapp (Sami)
miths, Pagan Germanic miths, Nicholas, Bishop of Smyrna, Coca-Cola ads,
fairy stories, the artistic creation of a political cartoonist in 19th
Century US, etc.

-- Carlos Th