Santa Claus Funnies and The Night Before Christmas
The poem The Night Before Christmas is of course well-known. The art on the 1900 book is exquisite, and I imagine gives a more faithful rendering of the traditional Santa Claus outfit? (1) Perhaps some of our European friends can enlighten me about whether Santa's outfit resembles the national dress of any particular country? It looks Scandinavian to me.
The version in Santa Claus Funnies is also quite good. (2) There was one thing I picked up in the poem (in both) that I'd never noticed before. It specifically says that there was a miniature sleigh, eight tiny reindeer, and a little old driver (Santa). Why were they all so little? And Santa seems to be normal size in the art
Also, since Jingle Bells was included in that book, (3) I thought you might be interested to know that there is an Australian version of Jingle Bells with Aussie lingo.
Cheers
Quirky Quokka
(1) Santa's outfit looks very much like traditional northern Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish clothing, and was the more traditional dress for him among The Scandinavians, Finns (both Suomi and Sami, and Karelians, too), and The north Germans. The miniature size of both Santa and his reindeer come from the blending of the old Northern European pre-Christian 12-day feasting and merriment celebration of Juul (Yule) for the Winter Solstice (return of The Sun), with the Christian celebration of Christ's birth, and later, the addition of Saint Nicholas giving gifts to the poor), mixed with the old Keltic and Germanic legends about the "little people", who left gifts for people who put up with their stealing and shenanigans, and "allowed them to steal food from their pantries" (later having a tradition for leaving food out for them to take and eat in the night).
(2) The legends of elves and dwarfs come from the distant memories of those much shorter peoples, who populated Europe before The Indo-European peoples arrived there, immigrating into Europe between 3,000 and 4,500 years ago. The former were shorter, probably because they ate less meat. And they may actually have been the hunter-gatherers who migrated there after the last ice age ended, from Africa and southern Spain, before The Anatolian Farmers first came 5,000 to 7,000 years ago, pushing them deeper into the forests, and into the mountains, and further west to unoccupied areas. So, these legends, told by word-of-mouth for a few thousand years had them end up as little people (elves and dwarfs), who lived in forests, under rocks or in underground caves and burrows, and made raids on the farmers' homes only at night, stealing food.
(2) When the Christian missionaries wanted to convert the pagan Northern European peoples to their religion, they had to allow them to keep their most important traditions and holidays. So, they were allowed to keep their (most important) winter solstice feasting holiday and Yule Log tradition, and they also mixed that together with commemorating the birth of Christ (2nd most important event in Christianity to his sacrificing himself and resurrection), and the later addition of Greek Priest (St. Nicholas) giving gifts. Giving gifts was something that could match the Keltic and Germanic traditional legends that "The Little People" gave gifts to farmer families at night while they slept, making shoes for them, cleaning their Non-sleeping rooms, sewing/mending their clothing, and so, the farmers reciprocated by leaving food for them.
(2) So Santa Claus (Sinterklaas, Father Christmas) was an elf. Because he was so important, he also had to be big. But, in the earliest few hundred years of the North Europeans' time as Christians, he was an elf, and so, was small. He also had to be smaller than a full-grown man to come down a chimney flue (but he was later made to be too fat to it down that opening. Carl Barks's theory on how he performed that trick was demonstrated in his 1949 "Walt Disney's Christmas Parade#1" story "A Letter For Santa", in which the jolly old elf demonstrates how he shrinks himself into his tiny size to fit in the chimneys. It is interesting that the large bag of toys he carries also shrinks by the same proportions. After coming out of the fireplace, he springs back to his bigger self. I assume that Little Santa and his shrunken reindeer fly from village to village in their smaller state, so as not to scare airplane pilots!
Here's his revelation:
I find it interesting that The Finns and Sami people have a tradition of "The Yule Man" - or "Father Christmas" carrying his gifts on a sled or sledge, pulled by a goat, rather than reindeer, despite the Suomi and Sami and Karelian peoples being among those few in The World who have domesticated that animal, and use it for transportation, and as a beast of burden. Here's some evidence:
(3) Because Australia has its Christmas celebration in the heat of Summer, I've always guessed some of Christmas' non-religious songs must have had some or all of their lyrics changed to reflect those differences from the original northern hemisphere Anglo cultures' versions. And now I see the proof in The Aussie version of "Jingle Bells", and I am not disappointed! Thanks Quirky!
I love the artwork and colouring in "The Night Before Christmas". They are excellent. I grew up reading such early 1900s books with engraving-style illustrations. That's really nostalgic for me.
I like the "Santa Claus Funnies' " version of "A Christmas Carol". The artwork, and choice of scenes from Dickens' original book are very good. I don't care all that much for the semi-religious or totally religious stories.
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Topic: Reading Group # 287 - Christmas 3nd Installment (Read 2485 times)
