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THE UNION-RECORDER. MILLEDGEVILLE. GA., DECEMBER 24. »Mt
Santa Claus Is An American!
ENGLISH CHILDREN KNOW HIM ONLY AS FATHER CHRISTMAS,
WHILE GERMAN YOUNGSTERS CALL HIM KRISS KR INGLE
FRENCH AND ITALIAN
KIDDIES GET NO GIFTS
Frcuch and Italian Kiddies Get No Gifts Display Line Tag 14 Pt. tag
Memory of Ancient Bishop of Myra Perpetuated in Custom of Potting
Presents in Stockings at Christmas Time
Ail i
• thi
ol'll! !
By CALEB JOHNSON
the 25th of shifts is that he learned of a |
December Christians of all creeds
and sects celebrate the birth of the
Messiah with the festival of Christ
ina —the Mass of Christ. But only
in countrie* whose traditions
culture derive from Tcutonii
re« do folk celebrate the duy by giv-
with three daughters, who were
get husbands became they
dowrie>. Their father was
planning to kill the daughters and
himself when St. Nicholas slipped in-
i their cottage by night and filled
ic stockings of the daughters with
gold!
In Italy, France, Spain, the na- j St. Nicholas Day is December Cth,
tlons of South America and other and for a thousand years the Eve of
countries where the Latin culture | St. Nicholas, December 5, was the
pn\ail.', Christmas i* celebrated as!date for filling the stockings. Christ-
a great . hurch festival but nobody * i.ia« was not fixed on December 25
thinks of giving anybody a present | until the Christian .hurch was
n? Christmas time. New Year’s Day j nearly 500 years old. In some parts
cf the church it was celebrated on
in Germany and in nil the coun
trie having the Teutonic background
which includes Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Hol
land. Belgium, England and the
B’*il :«h Dominions and the United
has hi
t gift-making s
the
of the year.
ad An
Claus himself, howe
Idren of England liavi
Santa Claus, unlcs
rican stories. The jolly old
chap with white whiskers
the -torkings secretly on t
Eve '% known to the little ot
British Empire as “Fnthe
vho fills
January 0th, elsewhere on March
25th. There is, of course, no record
of the date of the birth of the Sa
vior. But the Angles, the ancient
German people whose blood and tra
ditions still rule the English-speaking
world as well as the German, had a
pagan festival on December 25,
! “Modranccht” or Mothers’ Night,
when their New Year began, and in
J the »our. e of centuries that festival
came to be celebrated as the anni-
; vinary of the greatest event in the
i life of the greatest Mother of .all
Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
Chris
was still, however, dis-
eligious festival. St.
he
kno’
"Kr
Chr
United Stati
rs Kringle” is a corruption of
German “Chri tkindlein,” the
si Child. The peasant folk of
rmnnv have come to believe that
• giving of Christmas presents is
of the
Christ- I ^"' c f ,0 * a8 Ha> remained the duy when
| the children had their innings, until
the sixteenth century. On St. Nicho
las Day it was the custom to elect
a Boy Bishop, who appointed other
boys to the offices of the church, and
the youngesters ruled their towns
(since in those duys the church domi
nated everything) until Holy Innoc
ents Day. December 28. In some
parts of Germany the Boy Bishop
me part of
elsewhere.
symbolic ot the bringing of gift* to
the manger nt Bethlehem by tho Wise
Men of the East. But that is not the
source from which Christmas giving
originated.
Secret gifts to children are a tri
bute to the memory of St. Nicholas,
just as the name “Santa Claus” i*
an Americanization of the Dutch
PPtm- of that good old father of the
church. “San Nikuluas” as the early
Dutch settlers of New York called
the patron saint of children, schol
ar , merchants and sailors, sounded
like "Santa Claus” to the ears of the
Engli.-h children, who learned of him
from their Dutch playmates. And
Santa Claus he hnv been ever since
to generation* «»f American children,
ihough up to fifty c.* sixty year*
ago it was rot considered dignified
by the
refei
him
except by his full name, St. Nicho
las.
The figure of St. Nicholas *is a
little fat man in a fur-trimmed ceat,
rid ; ng in a sleigh drawn by reindeer,
anil clipping down chimneys with
a pack on his back, to fill the stock
ings which hung from the mantel of
present fixed^orm by Clement C.
Mo. re. whose porn; beginning * ’Twns
the night befon ( hristmns” wns writ
ten nearly a hundred years ago. Mr.
Moore did not call him Santa Claus
but entitled his poem, "A Visit from
St. Nicholas.”
Who was the real Suint Nicholas?
Why is he associated with the giv
ing of presents to children?
Nobody knows very much about
h ; m. Like some of the other leaders
o' th‘ early Christians, a mas? of
!• genii and myth has grown up about
hi? name, hut the records are strange-
All that- is known definitely is that
he was the Bi-hop of Myra, a town
in Asia Minor, about three hundred
years after Christ. Nobody knows
how the legends about him started,
but he wns held in such high esteem
that within a century or two after
ceremony persisted until 1799. But
England Henry VIII abolished it
jn 1542. Queen Mary restored it in
1552 and Elizabeth abolished it
finally a few years later.
The festivities which hud been a
part of St. Nicholas Day then began
c transferred to Christmas,
though there was a time when even
Christmas celebrations were forbidden
i England. That was in 1644,
hen Cromwell’s Puritan Parliament
paxsed an act forbidding any merri
ment or rel’gicus services at Christ-
on the ground that it wa
heathen festival! This feeling against
Christmas persisted among the Puri-
settlers of New England down to
the nineteenth century.
The exchanging of gifts by grown-
•s on Christmas Day is a very mod-
n idea indeed. And children to
day know where their pret-ents come
from; they no longer believe in the
good “San Niklaas’’ who fills their
stockings secretly by night Perhaps
the world was happier when Chri*t-
giving was less of an obligation
more of a jo> and the little
still helived in fairies and Santa
Claus.
THIEF SWIPES CHRISTMAS
DINNER OF SALVATION ARMY
Envoy and Mrs. Scovill purchased
a fine chicken for their dinner and
placed him in a coop at their home
on Jefferson street They were
fattening the bi*d to have him ready
for the feast Christmas dsy. Friday
night a thief entered the coop and
took the fowl off with him, leaving
the religious workers without Christ-
Eifvjoy Scovill stated that he
thought he was about the mcanist
man he ever taw, to take a chicken
from a preacher, but if he would
bring it back he would forgive him.
3 Merry Christmas!
$ The Baldwin Furniture Co.
Extends Greetings
Appreciating your pleasant business relations during the year,
we want to say Thank you, and to wish for you and yours a
happy Christmas, with all the joys of the Holiday Season..
The Baldwin Furniture Co.
J. C. INGRAM, Manager
a
Enjoy the Holidays at the
COLONIAL THEATRE
Christmas Day and the Day After
Nancy Carroll In
“Sweetie”
Monday - Tuesday Dec. 30, 31
Woman to Woman
Betty Compson In Her Latest
Wednesday - Thursday, Jan. 1, 2
The Cocoanuts
THE MARX BROTHERS IN A PICTURE YOU WILL ENJOY
Friday - Saturday, Jan. 3, 4
The Mighty
Starring George Bancroff
Comedy, News or Acts with
Each Picture
Merry Christmas
May this Clad Season be one of Happiness for each of
you. We are grateful for your many past favors.
Sam McComb
GREETINGS
From Bells Store
At this joyous holiday season, as the Chimes ring out
glad tidings, our thoughts revert gratefully to those
whose courtesy, good will and loyalty, have made
possible our progress.
We are very mindful of the favors you have extended
us, and may this greeting serve to express our heart
felt appreciation.
We extend our best wishes for a Christmas filled with
joy and a New Year of Health and Happiness.
E. E. Bell
WE WILL BE CLOSED CHRISTMAS DAY
Christmas
Greetings
Its been mighty good to know you and do_ busi
ness with you—I’ve enjoyed serving you during
the year and I now sincerely wish that Christmas
and the New Year finds you happy and prosperous.
Ralph Simmerson
BUICK & MARQUETTE DEALER