Tal and Greetings,

Traditions

This time of year is filled with family traditions. Every family has their own way of celebrating the holidays. These traditions range from putting up a Christmas tree to having celebrations with family members that they may not see the rest of the year. I have noticed this year that many people who tend not to really care about the holidays are caring this year. They are doing things that at times during the past years they have let slip by. Or perhaps they are finding new traditions to start with their family and loved ones. In my article this month, I would like to take time to look at the different traditions and how they still hold special meanings.

The Christmas Tree

The myth behind Santa Claus>

According to tradition, he was born in the ancient Lycian seaport city of Patara, and, when young, he traveled to Palestine and Egypt. He became bishop of Myra soon after returning to Lycia. He was imprisoned during the Roman emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians but was released under the rule of Emperor Constantine the Great and attended the first Council (325) of Nicaea. After his death he was buried in his church at Myra, and by the sixth century his shrine there had become well known. In 1087, Italian sailors or merchants stole his alleged remains from Myra and took them to Bari, Italy; this removal greatly increased the saint's popularity in Europe, and Bari became one of the most crowded of all pilgrimage centres. Nicholas' relics remain enshrined in the 11th-century basilica of San Nicola, Bari. Nicholas' reputation for generosity and kindness gave rise to legends of miracles he performed for the poor and unhappy. He was reputed to have given marriage dowries of gold to three girls whom poverty would otherwise have forced into lives of prostitution, and he restored to life three children who had been chopped up by a butcher and put in a brine tub. In the Middle Ages, devotion to Nicholas extended to all parts of Europe. He became the patron saint of Russia and Greece; of charitable fraternities and guilds; of children, sailors, unmarried girls, merchants, and pawnbrokers; and of such cities as Fribourg, Switz., and Moscow. Thousands of European churches were dedicated to him, one as early as the sixth century, built by the Roman emperor Justinian I, at Constantinople (now Istanbul). Nicholas' miracles were a favourite subject for medieval artists and liturgical plays, and his traditional feast day was the occasion for the ceremonies of the Boy Bishop, a widespread European custom in which a boy was elected bishop and reigned until Holy Innocents' Day (December 28). After the Reformation, Nicholas' cult disappeared in all the Protestant countries of Europe except Holland, where his legend persisted as Sinterklaas (a Dutch variant of the name Saint Nicholas). Dutch colonists took this tradition with them to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in the American colonies in the 17th century. Sinterklaas was adopted by the country's English-speaking majority under the name Santa Claus, and his legend of a kindly old man was united with old Nordic folktales of a magician who punished naughty children and rewarded good children with presents.

("Nicholas, SAINT", Britannica CD. Version 97. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1997.)

It is amazing but true that the common, popular view of Santa that we all have today, along with all the crazy things around Santa like the sleigh, the reindeer and the chimney, all came largely from two publishing events that occurred in the 1800s and one advertising campaign in this century. Clement Moore wrote "The Night Before Christmas" in 1822 for his family. It was picked up by a newspaper, and then reprinted in magazines and it spread like wildfire. Then, between 1863 and 1886, Harper's Weekly (a popular magazine of the time) ran a series of engravings by Thomas Nast. From these images come the concepts of Santa's workshop, Santa reading letters, Santa checking his list and so on. Coca-Cola also played a role in the Santa image by running a set of paintings by Haddon Sundblom in its ads between 1931 to 1964. The red and white suit came, actually, from the original Saint Nicholas. Those colors were the colors of the traditional bishop's robes.

How did Christmas become known as X-Mas?

According to the book "Did you ever wonder", by Jeff Rovin, the word for Christ in Greek is Xristos. The use of the shortened form "Xmas" became popular in Europe in the 1500s.

Now a family tradition of my own that I would like to share with everyone.

I know in my household many of the things we have let slip by in the past years we are once again doing. I was happy that my father decided to clean and put up his train this year. This tradition may seem a bit abnormal. In my household though it was a tradition that has been with my family for years and it was a tradition in my father's household since he was just a baby. His train is a 1954 American Flyer and is still in wonderful condition. Every year he would take the pieces out of their storage and clean them off. Building the track and making sure that everything was in working order. He had stopped this tradition for some time. I would say probably a good 5 years. Every year, I would hope that he would bring out the train. But work and other commitments always seemed to get in the way. This year I was rather shocked when one Sunday morning he announced that not only would he be putting it up, but he would also be going to the train store to see if he could perhaps purchase new track and maybe a car or two. It had been years since I went to the store. I could vaguely remember where it was located at and what the man looked like that owned the store. When we got there the man was a bit busy, so my father and I had the chance to look around a bit. Looking at all the different locomotives and cars was just a little bit how I remembered them. Each had their own special qualities about them. I did notice one thing though they weren't built the same. They were a bit to commercialized and not built of the same quality that the old ones were made from. For instance, there was a McDonald's train set there. To me McDonald's and trains have nothing to do with one another. When the owner finally got the chance to speak with us. My father asked him if he had any track for the American Flyer. And the guy just laughed, and said that he had not sold any American Flyer items since the early 80's, and the items he had from the other company he sold in the early 90's. My father and I were both a little disappointed. The track we had for the train worked okay. But in time it would defiantly need replaced and since it was already 15 years old it may not last that many more years. We went home and my father discussed with the story of how this tradition started. He explained that he was not even a year old when his father bought the train for him for Christmas, and how every year they would put the train up. My father always took great care of what some may consider a toy, but he considered it something more. His family did not have a lot of money. So this was a very special gift. He also told me that the whole thing cost one hundred dollars at that time, and that price included everything. Now a days, the cheapest piece we found was two hundred dollars and the most expensive was six hundred and fifty. Those prices were just for one piece!! When we finally got home, we got the box out and started unwrapping the pieces. Picking them up and cleaning them off I could remember myself as a little girl playing with the train for hours on end. I would play with the train more then anything I may have gotten for Christmas. To me it was the best tradition my family ever had. I think that it was because this is the one thing my father and I used to always do. When the rest of the year we would barely do any type of father/daughter activities this was the one thing I knew I could count on doing with him. Now the train has been up for close to a week now. And even though it does not feel much like Christmas in other aspects of my life. Seeing that train when I come home always bring a smile to my face and very fond memories of times past.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about how the various Christmas traditions originated. I was able to gain a lot of information from the Encyclopedia Britannica and the book titled "Did you ever wonder" by Jeff Rovin. I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas, and may your New Year bring you much happiness. If you have a Gorean lifestyle issue you would like to discuss, please feel free to email me at ~Amara~

~Amara~