The New York herald., 1921-01-23
Santa Claus.
A Scholar Tries to Identify the
Friend the Children Know.


To THE NEW YORK HERALD: A cor
respondent of yours signing himself a
Curious Inquirer asks How many
children are taught the true significance
of Santa CLAUSE" With your kind per-
mission I would prefer to ask, How
many adults are taught the true mean
Ing and the facts about Saint Nicholas?
Why Santa? There Is no such a word
either in Latin, English or German. yet
Claus is q German abbreviation for
Nicolaus, a Greek word, nicao, / win,
1 conquer. and laos, the people. that IS,
the victory Of the people. The Ger
mans use the word sanct. In ecclesiastic
Latin holy. a saint; altogether, Sanctus
Nicolaus.
Nicolaus was born at Myre, a town
on tho seacoast OF Lycia, Asia Minor,
east Of the Island OF Rhodos. In the
Mediterranean. on December 9. S45,
where he became tho Bishop. and lived
all his life. Fancy now tho ig-
norance Of painting him in some kind
of n cavalry Uniform, with a bag, a
sleigh, reindeer and q chimney Truly.
Mr. Chesterton can Justly lecture on the
ignorance of the educated. for this Is a
good illustration Of what our education
means mostly gathered from newspa-
pers, without our schools being able to
correct such extravaganza.
Bishop Nicolaus was great beloved by
his people for his boundless benefac-
tions, SO much so. indeed. that for the
last fifteen centuries he has been re-
garded and venerated as the patron
saint Of children IN general and Of
marriageable virgins in particular.
Tradition has Il that on q certain oc-
casion In the evening on his way home
he passed the windows of poor family.
when he heard tho sobbing OF the father
and mother depioring their inability of
giving a dowry to their daughter. with
out which they could not give the daugh-
ter into marriage 10 an honorable young
man OF good family OF the community
Going home tho holy man soon returned
with q wallet OF gold coins. which he
threw In by the window and disap-
peared. As he was well known by simI-
lar other benefactions Of his the people
recognized his identity and his deeds
were never forgotten.
About q thousand years later his body
was removed to Bari Italy. and his
memory was preserved by both Churches
the Byzantine and the Romah--
by being canonized. and his feast is
celebrated on the eve OF his birthday
the 9th of December. throughout tho
Greek, Slav and other nations OF Asia,
tho Balkan and central european States :;
in nearly every town and village a
young man dressed In bishops robes,
with the infula, the crosier. &C.. and ac-
companied by other youths and girls.
tho latter dressed as angels. all visit
houses with children. usually at tho sup
per table. ana rewarding the children
who recite their prayers, so
Now this II Sanctus Nicolaus. His
celebration. as stated above, is held on
December 5. tho eve OF his birthday.
and 80 IL has absolutely nothing in COM
mon with Christmas. 1t is the "edu-
Gated mans Ignorance" again which con-
fuses Saint Nicolaus with Jesus Childie.
the English rendition OF the. German
Krist Kindi--Christ Childie--the Ger
man being corrupted into Kris Kringle.
This Christ Childie too is celebrated
mainly by Germans. but also quito gen.
orally In central Europe Under the
name sf Bethlshem. . wooden cupboard
ljdnA s1 oez n yniOA ~ &ha Aappenr