The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-29
ANCESTRY OF SANTA"
LONG AGO HE WAS A JOLLY GOD OF
PAGAN CELEBRATIONS.
Legend of st. NichoIas-FemaIe Do
sies Who We're Usurpers i'm Times
Gone By-Bnpann and BabOushka.

Sies Who Were Usurpers in Times
Gone By-Bapana and BabOuShI6a.
From the New York Herald.
The jolly, potbellied, FOSTERING old Santa
Claus is in hot water. Preachers and pa
rents are rising up against him, declaring
that he Is a fraud and as such ought to
be suppressed. Thank heavens, a sporadic
| agitation like this can have no serious re-
suits. Recalcitrant parents and preach
ers will pass away. Santa Claus will en-
cure until the end, as he has endured from
the beginning
NO one can say how old he is or at what.
period he made his first appearance among
prehistoric men. The name of Santa
Claus, by which he is known in America
is the Dutch pet name for st. Nicholas.
The name Crfss Cringle. by which he is
known in England, is a corruption of
Christ kindlein or the Christ child. But
the festivities that distinguish Christmas
existed long before Christianity and a
Jolly god of good cheer appears as The
personfcation of the period from the ear
Hest pagan times. Now, the old Santa
Claus of to-day is simply that jolly OLD
god sobered up, washed and purified.
The Dionysia of the Greeks the Satu
urnala of the Romans, the Twelve Nights
of the old Norsemen and of the Teutoos
all celebrated the coming of the winter
solstiee. People then gave themselves I'D
| TO all SORTS of reVelry and excess. In the
Dlohysia the representative figure was not
! the young Dionysus of Bacchus but the
aged, CHEEKY and disreputable Silenus. the
af,a
ards. In the Saturnalia il was Saturn. in
the Germanlc feasts it was Thor, both
| long-nearded and White-haired gods like
Silenus.
NOW, although the central figure of the
| christian festival is the child God, the
| CHRIST hindlein, the influence of long pa
! gan customs was stoos strong within the
breasts of the early Christians to be easily
| superseded The tradition of hoary age
as the true representative of the living
| year and its attendant Publications still
| remained smouldering under the ashes of
| the past. 1t burst into new flame when
| the past was too far back to be looked
upon with the fear and antagonism of
| tne church, and there seemed no longer
| any danger of a relapse into paganism
| AT frst however the more dignihed rep
resentatve was chosen as more in keepif4
! with the occasion. Saturn was unani-
mOusly reDaptized as st. Nicholas the
maine of the saint whose festival occurs
| IN December and who as the patron of
young people, is especially fitted for the
! patronage of the festival, which has come
to be looked upon as especially that of the
young. At first st. Nicholas did not su-
persede the Christ child, but accompanied
him in his Christmas travels, as, indeed,
| he sun does in certain rural neighbor-
| hoods of Europe where the modern spirit
has been least felt.
ST. Nicholas, according to the hagiolo-
gists, was bishop of Myra who -four
ished early in the Fourth century He
is the patron of the children and school
boys.
1T is strange that everywhere st. Mich
olas is most honored and his feast day
most observed. the most pious and in
structed among the common people know
little of the legend of the saint He is
| treated with that mixture of seriousness
and frivolity which becomes a dying, myth
| One masquerades in his dress in the even
ing and prays to him in the morning, and
so fulfills a duty without spelling the fun
Vet even the mumming has an educa>
! tional purpose
In Southern Germany and Austria a
| youth possessing the necessary religious
knowledge is masked, dressed in long
White Vestments, with a silk scarf and
| furnished with inter and crozier. He
is accompanied by two angels and a whole
troop of devils. The angels are dressed
much like the choir boys in Anglican or
! Catholic churches Each carries a bas-
ket The devils blacken their faces and
add horns or pig shouts or such other fan
tastic devices as the ingenuity of boyhood
can devise. They are with chains, which
they shake or rattle furiously 1t is
thought much better fun TO be a devil
than an agel, hence the number of the for
mer is only limited to the number of boys
who are able to command the necessary
1egalia. In the twilight of the evening of
Dec the good bishop and us suite be-
gin their round of visits. 1t is the sea-
son for juvenile parties, and almost ALI
the children of the village are collected in
few separate houses, each of which St
Nicholas visits in turn. He enters with
two or three angels. while his swarthy fol-
lowers are left to play their pranks out
| side A great silence falls upon the chill
dren, and one by one they are called up
and examined by the saint. This part OF
the evenings business is carried on with
the greatest seriousness and decorum
| Simple religious questions suited to the
age Of each child are propounded after
which it has to sing hymns and reclte
prayers. If the ordeal is successfully pass
ed the angels present it with nuts and
apples. If it fails 1t has to stand aside
When the examination is ended the devils
are called in.
They are not allowed to approach the
good children, but may tease and brighten
! the naughty ones as much as they like
| They do this at first as matter of duty
| Duty is followed by the pleasures whose
anticipation has caused them to enlist
pleasures which consist i'm strange dances
and antics, and in pursuing the larger
girls with the attempt to blacken their
faces. Their whole appearance is intend
ed to be grotesque and farcial For the
entire evening they are allowed full Ii
cense in the villages, though in some of
the towns the festival has for good reasons
been prohibited. For weeks before the
eve of St Nicholas a devil may OCCASION
/ ally be seen at the window of some cot
tage where the children are supposed to
be naughty or their elder sister Is known
20 be particularly attractive. 1t Is proof
of the sound nerves OF the children that
no harm seems 20 come from an exhibit
ton which, for the younger among them
Is serious and even dreadful ordeal.
When St. Nicholas has left, the children
return 20 their own homes, but they do
not believe that the generosity OF the
sanity bishop has been exhausted. After
saying their prayers and going to bed they