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The Fascinating Folklore Origins of Santa Claus

We’ve all heard of the jolly gift-giver—but how did he come to be synonymous with Christmas?

• Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The legend of Santa Claus is widely known throughout the West and many other parts of the world. A plump man sporting a white beard and a red suit, Santa is said to bring gifts to well-behaved children on Christmas Eve, and deliver a lump of coal to those whose manners could stand to improve.

Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, at one point you’ve probably wondered where the legend of Santa Claus originates from, and how the tale of a charitable man in a sled hailing from the North Pole became so closely associated with the Christian holiday. As it turns out, Santa Claus has roots in the folklore of several different European countries, and the gift-giving tradition stretches back much farther than most people realize.

Santa Claus may owe his earliest influence to Odin (also known as Wodan), a god revered by Germanic peoples in Northern Europe as early as 2 B.C.E. Odin was celebrated during Yule, a pagan holiday that took place midwinter. During this time, Odin was said to lead the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession through the sky.

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Like many other pagan holidays that later merged with early Christian traditions, elements of Yule influenced the celebration of Christmas, to the extent that the word “Yuletide” is now synonymous with the Christmas season. Examples of Yuletide traditions that merged with Christmas include the Yule log and singing door-to-door.

It’s unclear to what extent Odin in particular has had an effect on Christmas. But as a bearded, cloaked man who traveled through the winter night sky, Odin undoubtedly bears similarities to Santa Claus, sparking speculation that the god was an early pagan influence on the modern-day mythical figure.

However, many elements of Santa Claus, especially his reputation as a secret giver of gifts, can be more concretely traced back to Saint Nicholas, a real historical figure. This 4th-century Christian bishop was of Greek descent and lived in the city of Myra (now located in modern-day Turkey), where he was known for his generosity. By the Middle Ages, a tradition had been established in which many European Christian children were left gifts on the evening of December 5, allowing them to wake up and open their presents in honor of Saint Nicholas’s feast day on December 6.

• Frontispiece to The Examination and Tryal of Old Father Christmas, 1687. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The legend of Saint Nicholas became further mythologized in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and northern France, where he was known as Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas was said to have a long white beard and wore a red cape over a bishop’s garment, similar to what the real Saint Nicholas would have worn. He also carried a big red book full of children’s names, listing whether each had been naughty or nice that year.

The celebration of Saint Nicholas evolved once more during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, which heralded a split from the Roman Catholic Church. During this time, Martin Luther discouraged the veneration of saints to prevent them from gaining a cult-like following.

The feast of Saint Nicholas was swept up in these changes, and the clergy urged Protestant parents to give gifts on Christmas Eve instead, to more closely associate the practice with Jesus’s birth. Although many complied with the new date, Saint Nicholas and the Dutch Sinterklaas remained the face of the gift-giving tradition among Christians of various denominations.

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THE PAGAN ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS The Secret Symbolism of Santa

For this Yule season I’d like to tackle where the symbolism of Santa originates and the possible Pagan origins behind his appearance. The name Santa Claus has its roots in the informal Dutch name for St. Nicholas, Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas was a historic 4th-century Greek saint. However, St. Nicholas looks nothing like the jolly St. Nick we’re familiar with, so where does the symbolism of Santa come from?

The image of a jolly, chubby, grandfatherly face of Santa was largely popularized by two individuals from the 19th century: the political cartoonist Thomas Nast, and the book Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore. Book these works helped define much of the appearance & symbolism we associate with Santa today. My curiosity comes from trying to understand what religious and cultural traditions inspired Thomas Nast & Clement Moore to create our contemporary image of Santa.

There are many Pagan origins that may have inspired our modern day Santa Claus and I’d like to present just two possible ideas: Odin & Siberian Shamanism

ODIN

Odin, one of the major gods in Norse paganism, shares many physical characteristics with the image of Santa Claus. The winter solstice, or Yule, was a time when Odin led a hunting party, known as the Wild Hunt, in the sky with his eight-legged horse named Sleipnir.

The 13th century Poetic Edda said the mythical horse could leap great distances -- a trait reindeer possess. Children would leave their boots by the chimney filled with carrots and hay to feed Sleipnir and legend has it that whenever Odin flew by he would leave gifts by their boots.

After Christianity took hold, this practice of gift giving was later adopted in relation to St. Nicholas. Children would leave their shoes on the windowsill or bedroom door for the Saint to reward them with nuts, fruits and sweets. With all these similar symbolic and physical traits it’s very likely that the tales of Odin inspired many of the characteristics we associated with our stories of Santa.

The classic red & white color scheme of Santa possibly derives from a much older Slavic deity known as Father Winter. This red and white color scheme was chosen because it’s colors match a historically significant hallucinogenic mushroom, known as Amanita Muscaria.

This mushroom was integral to not just early Pagan civilizations, but also to early Christianity. I recommend the book The Sacred Mushroom & The Cross if you’re interested in learning more about the influence on this mushroom in early Christian society.

These mushrooms played a large role in Siberian village life, especially during the winter solstice festivities. During mid winter, the local shaman would collect enough mushrooms for everyone in the community. They would collect them in a large sack and deliver them to each house in the village. In Siberia, the snow would be really high at midwinter, making it unlikely that the Shaman would enter through the door. Instead, the Shaman would probably have to climb through the smoke hole of the hut and this may be the origin of the concept of Santa entering through the chimney.

The villagers would put the mushrooms in a sock and then hang them by the fireplace so that they would dry out. After they were dried the family would consume the mushrooms on the winter solstice, which would induce an altered state.

This specific mushroom also happens to grow beneath pine trees, the very same trees we decorate with today for Christmas & Yule. These mushrooms are also regularly consumed by reindeer in Siberia. So many reindeer at this time of year are ‘flying high’ if you get the idea.

Still today Siberian shamans wear red and white in a pattern reminiscent of the Amanita Muscara mushroom. Perhaps this red and white color scheme associated with Siberian shamanism and the Slavic deity Father Winter inspired the classic fur trimmed outfit of Santa.

It seems that the jolly old Santa stories we grow up with in fact tie back all the way to our Pagan roots. Indeed much of modern Christmas has Pagan origins and I really enjoy peeling back the layers of history to uncover Pagan tales full of holiday cheer.

What are your thoughts on my theories about the influence of Odin and Siberian shamanism? Share your ideas in the comments.

The Pagan Origins of Christmas

Every year, billions of people all around the world celebrate Christmas and have no idea where this festival came from.

Christmas draws from Roman and druidic celebrations. The roots of Christmas are in ancient events like Saturnalia to the German celebrations of Yule, which served the Norse god Odin. Christmas actually comes from pagan celebrations and fertility rites. In fact, Christmas is really about “bringing out your inner pagan,” some historians say.

Christmas before Christ — the Roman Saturnalia

For most people, Christmas is a holiday deeply rooted in Christianity. But Christmas has less to do with Jesus and Christians and more to do with pagan celebrations in temples.

The ancient Romans celebrated the winter solstice, feasating and celebrating the god Saturn (the equivalent of Zeus). Other cultures, like the Celts, had their own version of celebration around the same period.

The earliest history of Christmas is composed of “pagan” (non-Christian) fertility rites and practices that predate Jesus by centuries. Most of the traditions we associate with Christmas are actually not Christian at all. These traditions include decorating Christmas trees, singing carols, and giving Christmas gifts. Yes, all those beloved Christmas practices are not Christian at all.

Via Wiki Commons.

So then, how did Christmas get to what it is today?

Table of Contents

• 1 The origins of Christmas
• 2 Romans and Christmas
• 3 Christmas becomes Christian
• 4 Yule celebrations
• 5 German celebrations, Odin, and Christmas
• 6 Modern Christmas

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The origins of Christmas

Humans have celebrated Christmas (in one form or another) for more than two millennia. In that time, the customs we have today have become a mixture of different cultures and traditions.

But wait, isn’t Christmas when Jesus was born? The answer is almost definitely ‘no’. We really have no clear idea when Jesus was actually born. However, the most plausible dates (if Jesus did exist in fact) are not in December at all, and it’s possibly not in ‘year 0’ either.

The New Testament gives no date or year for the birth of Jesus. The first calculation we have came from Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, “abbot of a Roman monastery”. In the Roman, pre-Christian era, years were counted from ab urbe condita (AUC) — from “the founding of the City”, with the city being Rome. So 1 AUC is the year Rome was founded — what we now call 753 BC. The year 10 AUC signifies the 10th year after Rome was founded and so on.

Historian and monk Dionysius Exiguus based his calculations on Roman history and estimated that Jesus was born in 754 AUC. However, Luke 1:5 places Jesus of Nazareth’s birth in the days of Herod, and Herod died in 750 AUC. This is four years before the year in which Dionysius places the birth of Jesus. In fact, most researchers conclude that Jesus was born somewhere between 6 BC and 4 BC. Pretty much any way you take it, it seems very unlikely that Jesus was born in what we consider year 0.

Joseph A. Fitzmyer – Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America, member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission supports this idea:

“Though the year [of Jesus birth is not reckoned with certainty, the birth did not occur in AD 1. The Christian era, supposed to have its starting point in the year of Jesus birth, is based on a miscalculation introduced ca. 533 by Dionysius Exiguus.”

The date, 25th December, is even more dubious.

The date was first asserted officially as the birth of Christ by Pope Julius I in 350 AD. However, the pope didn’t really bring any evidence to justify his claim.

The influential Greek bishop Irenaeus (c. 130–202) had a different idea. Irenaeus thought that Christ’s conception was in March 25. This would be linked with Jesus being born nine months later on December 25. The Bible doesn’t speak about the date, but the references in the Bible show it most likely did not take place in winter.

It was actually pagan customs that brought the year of 25th December.

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