The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-06
This is the Festival Of
the Real "Santa Claus"

When the youngsters on this side of
the Atlantic and in Great Britain hang
up their stockings on Christmas eve,
in the confident Expectation that San
ia Claus will come around in the night
and fill the hosiery with toys and can
mistake.
Santa Claus doesn't come around on
Christmas eve at ALI! The sixth of
December-this very day, children
is the really truly Santa Claus day.
The youngsters of poor, stricken
Belgium understand this, and, wheth-
err in their native land or exiIes in
England or France, they are celebrat-
ing in honor of st. Nick today. And
if any wise, and sophisticated Ameri-
can boy tried to tell 'em that Santa
Claus makes his rounds on Christmas
ever, or maybe that there isn't any
ST. Nick, why, it is to be hoped, every
Belgian child would be able to pro-
duce full stocking to prove the fall
sity of such iconcolastic notions.
In Holland, too, where many or the
youngsters wear wooden shoes, Santa;
Claus pays his annual visit during the
night preceding the sixth of Deem
Der, and today is the big chiIdren's
holiday of the year.
The same is largely true of Ger
many and Austria. and many. other
European countries, where Santa
Claus is honored today.
Tt may sbe, however, that the merry
old saint found that after America
was discovered he couldn't possibly
go everywhere in one night, and SO
postponed coming to America until
the twenty-fourth of December. That
would give him time to enjoy good
nap, and lay in a new supply of toys
and goodies.
The real st. Nicholas lived in Asia
Minor, where the terrible Turks now
hold sway, about fifteen centuries
ago. He was the friend of little chill
dren and of young people. One time
he heard of man who was SO poor
that he was about to sell his three
girls as slaves, and he secretly drop
ped a bag of gold down the Chin
ney. That was the first of a vast
multitude of gifts from Santa Claus,
Other people followed the example,
and secretly bestowed gifts on the eve
of st. Nicholas Day.
The body of st. Nicholas was seized
and carried off to Italy in the eleventh
century, and his tomb at Bari is the
scene of great annual pilgrimages on
the sixth of December. Until the war
broke out tens. of thousands of Rus
slams visited Bari each December, as
the Russians look upon st. Nicholas
as their patron saint.
The Dutch are responsible for ap-
plying the name of Santa Claus to
St. Nicholas. The Dutch words for
the saint sound very much like Santa
Claus, and that was what he finally
came to be called. The custom OF
celebrating in honor of Santa, Claus
was brought to America by the early
Dutch colonists, but the English set
tiers, while retaining the name, trans
ferred it to Christmas Day.
In the early days in England, how
ever ST. Nicholas was the children's
holiday, while Christmas was for the
grown-ups. One of the ways of OBJ
serving the saints feast was the cleo
ton of ''boy bishop" in each com
rnunity With his juvenile dean and
prebendaries, he burlequed the vari-
Gus ceremonies and functions of the
church, and exercised his episcopal
jurisdiction from the sixth to the
twenty-eighth of December. Prior to
the Reformation these ridiculous
nnurnmeries were encouraged by the
clergy themselves, and the elections of
boy bishops were often held in cathe-
drals.