History-Makers: Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus

There's plenty more to unpack with the history and modern reception of the character of Zwarte Piet – seeing as that wasn't the point of this video, I figured it was best to avoid the tangent.
But interestingly enough, Dutch culture is currently reimagining the character to be less... well, less of a deliberately racist caricature. New interpretations include "Rainbow Pete" and "Sooty Pete", and they have their own nuances and difficulties as well – but it's worth the investigation if you're curious, because it really is fascinating to see cultural innovation in real time! This is the stuff we talk about happening hundreds of years ago, but this one is happening now!!

Anyway Merry Crimbis and stuff, don't get punched by a saint.
-B

Before when I was little kid i really curious about Santa Claus and now atlast I already knew this is where the history came from

San Nicola is still loved and many kids in Bari are named after him. We dedicate three entire days to him from 6th to 8th may, remembeeing when we took the bones from the Turks. We used to have many Russian pilgrims. Not so many anymore now.

Me, a Pagan who celebrates Yule, at Christians: Stop! Copying! Our! Holiday!

(This is mostly written as a joke. While I'm still right, I know the history of why modern Christmas traditions are similar to Yule traditions is more complicated than usual cultural appropriation.)

who are you to say this person supports slavery?

Note that Saint Nicholas was Greek

Being remembered in history as the Emperor that tortured St. Nicolas is quite the achievement.

Isnt swarte pete supposed to be black from coal dust like knecht Ruprecht?

things get complicated in Greece and correct me if I am wrong the orthodox Christianity when in New year's day we celebrate St. Vasileios who did the same thing as Nicolaos basically ... he was a bishop that distributed his wealth to the poor hiding gold coins into baked pies!

Hilarious & thank you.

In Belgium, and netherlands as well probably, we celebrate both Sinterklaas and Christmas seperately. They are different for us.
Also, about black pete: What I have always been told is this: They were slaves that sinterklaas had freed, and some of them decided to thank him by helping sinterklaas delivering present to children. Doesn't change the racism of black face and the probably white savior aspect of the story. There are attempts to rebrand black pete to soot pete, their black face coming from the soot of the chimneys they crawl through (Some people like to say this has always been the story but that's bullshit) but people, like always, really don't like when you tell them you can't do a thing or say it's racist.

"Stealth charity" lmao

About Netherlands and friends.
I'm a french speaking belgian and can't tell for Flanders but Saint Nicholas is how we name the almost mythical character nowaday, in the Benelux and norden France (or just Alsace ?) we're having the festivity. Anyway, the way blue talk about may seem the name as derived but it's really just a translation of the his name.

Ps: Also the story about the children from the inn keeper as turn into an butcher being an ogre really fun story turning into folklore
PSS: No it's not black face it's a demon/ogre artist =/= tale. You are projecting your culture and history to ours

Yule wasn't celebrated in December 25th but it was moved that by a former pagan Christian king to coincide with Christmas

Had the Dutch not employed any dark-skinned characters in their celebrations, they would be called racist and guilty of whitewashing, had they employed them, they would be scolded for human trade and trafficking of the African people. They chose the variant in the middle, where all involved participate voluntarily, they still get criticized. Nowadays, it doesn't matter what you do as a white person, it's all wrong - because you're white. And don't you dare tell a dark-skinned fella he shouldn't be crossing that street on a red light, that would be a racial persecution...

Thanks, guys! I always wondered what was the connection between Odin and Santa Claus (cuz Dresden Files) and now I know!

...I'm sorry. Blackface, why was it popular in it's time?. Are we just going to forget all those black actors who suffered performing, just forget so that we repeat the mistakes over and over again?

There is old children’s tale that if you are racist towards black people Saint Nick will dip you ink.

That probably has something to do with the black face.

Yeah, at this point I stay with Saturnalia. Changing roles with my slaves is so much fun.

Someone needs to tell Saint Nicholas that he just got owned by a modern actor.

my favourite santa funfact (im biased) is that in norway he's for some reason conflated with the nisse, a type of weird freak gnome who lives on barns

The blackface is generally believed to come from soot and ash whenever Zwarte Piet climbs through chimneys. Implausible, yes. But so is the idea of an old man climbing down your chimney, when you have central heating. The point is merely: will children believe this? But because this is the version so many people in the Netherlands grew up with, they will scream "political correctness has gone to far!" if you touch their nostalgia. And you do need to have some form of disguise for relatives dressing up for Sinterklaas, because even little kids might ask "why is the Sint accompanied by Uncle Jan in a Zwarte Piet costume?".

The more overt caricature of Piet as an African, though, actually comes from an abolitionist, who hoped to use the character of Zwarte Piet to teach children that black people can be good to. Granted, he started out as more of a boogeyman than a jolly distributor of candy and amusing prankster. But Saint Nick himself wasn't the most humorous fellow himself. The standards of 19th century parenting were... different. A hard spanking with a bundle of fags, or abduction to Spain to be forced into child labour was just how you made those little twerps behave back then.

Weirdly enough, in Greece, the modern figure of "Santa Claus" has not been inspired by the image of Saint Nicholas, but by the image of Saint Basil of Caesarea (a Greek bishop from Cappadocia, Anatolia, and one of the Cappadocian Fathers in the eastern Orthodox Church, with a similar role to St. Nicholas regarding gift-giving to the children and the poor), meaning it celebrates St. Basil as the "Santa Claus" of the country. I didn't understand the mix up between the two venerating bishops at first, but I was told by the people there that there were differences in the role and canonicity of the saints.

For the Greeks, Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and travelers (we still venerate the former saint, just in different role as a patron saint), and Saint Basil is the patron of education and letters. Perhaps the Greek people picked Saint Basil due to his education in theological issues and his charital role for the poor, turning him into the traditional image of the gift-giving saint, which they view him today as St. Basil/Santa Claus.

Fun santa fact: at one of his tombs (there’s a couple) priests bottle the water that bubbles up out of the stone there as ‘manna’ and sell it. That’s right true good listers, you too can buy Santa Claus Tomb Water. (disclaimer: May not actually contain any traces of actual Santa)

I can't believe they gave the Coca-Cola mascot lore!

funny thing christians love santa claus but original santa is an ortodox/byzantinian + the myth believed santa claus is from north but actually from southern europe, this is why history is so much fun, i bet there's a general who is the son of zeus oh... wait that's alexander the alright alright alright

In the Orthodox world instead of Saint Nicholas we have Saint Basil filling the role of Santa Claus

It's funny how we Dutch people re-borrowed Santa Claus, so we essentially celebrate Sinterklaas twice in the same month haha

Ho-ho-homocinous

Honestly, I rather like the idea of getting gold thrown to me at night. Not so down with punching heretics in the face. Although, I will admit it's better than being burned at the stake.

Ah, the good old patron saint of prostitutes himself. Seriously, can’t believe he went through the whole video without mentioning that comedy gold nugget. 😂

Here in Romania we have both. THere is basically 2 Christmases every year!

I hate americans bringing american politics to european culture. Nobody here cares about your "blackface", it doesn't even have anything to do with it.

A good future for children then was paying a dowry. Now, it's theoretically paying for education.
In other words, spread Christmas cheer by paying someone's college debt off.

You speak faster than red.

So the true meaning of Christmas is fuck the confederacy? I can get behind that.

Christmas itself became a trinity lol

Where I'm from the present-day situation gets even more mixed up, because:

0) most of the country calls Santa "św. Mikołaj" – lit. st. Nicholas
1) December 6th, the day of st. Nicholas is also often celebrated – gifts in shoes and stuff
2) depending on the region of the country, Christmas gifts are brought by
2 a) "św. Mikołaj" | "Mikołaj"
2 b) "Dzieciątko Jezus" | "Dzieciątko" (little baby Jesus)
2 c) "aniołek" (little angel)
2 d) "dziadek Mróz" (grandfather Frost)
2 e) "gwiazdka" (little star)
2 f) "Gwiazdor" (this is my region btw)
2 f a) "Gwiazdor" could probably be translated as star-man, but imho it doesn't really give the same vibe
2 f b) the name "Gwiazdor" most likely exists because an alt name for Christmas ("Boże Narodzenie" – lit. God's birth) is "gwiazdka" (little star)
2 f b a) Christmas can be called "gwiazdka" probably because Christmas Eve celebration traditionally starts only after the first star of that day can be spotted
2 f c) "Gwiazdor" is confusingly also a way to refer to a male 'star' (as in, a celebrity)
2 f c a) this is because "star" is "gwiazda" in both the astronomical-object meaning and the famous-person meaning, while also the word "star" has the feminine grammatical gender and thus feels really out of place when talking about a male celebrity
3) Christmas gifts do not appear in stockings; it's usually under the Christmas tree instead. Yet, a lot of foreign media has it otherwise

Blue: "OMG, Martin Luther made Jesus work on his birthday!!!"
Me: "German's gonna German 🤷 "

My condolences for your grandfather.

Me seeing this: oh shit! He gonna mention that he’s the patron saint of prostitution?

Hi, I live in Amsterdam, so know quite something about Zwarte Piet. Yes, it is racist af, no one actually likes it except old and very conservative people. We are trying to abolish it, thank god.

The Yuleman lives in Greenland. Dont know where this idea of the North Pole came from. 😃

I really appreciate how respectful he is, especially since if I recall correctly (apologies if I am wrong) he isn't christian. Thanks for the wholesome history :)

That dedication at the end hit me right in the heart, especially as I also had a grandfather I truly admired that was named after Saint Nicholas. Hope your Yule was lovely, and may good fortune come your way in 2023!