lessons for “candy”. This could be the slogan of the school children who sing each December 6 (the date of the Saint-Nicolas) to welcome their patron Saint…. Already, the shadow of the Father Christmas modern edge behind stanzas rather outdated. Here are the lyrics of the song of Saint Nicholas according to the specialized site fete-enfants.com to :
Ô grand Saint Nicolas,
Patron saint of schoolchildren,
Bring me apples
In my little basket.
I will be always wise
As a small image.
I learned my lessons
To have candy.
come, Come, Saint Nicolas,
come, Come, Saint Nicolas,
come, Come, St. Nicholas, and tra la la…
O great Saint Nicolas,
Patron saint of schoolchildren,
Bring me toys
In my little basket.
I will always be wise
As a small sheep.
I learned my lessons
To have candy.
come, Come, Saint Nicolas,
come, Come, Saint Nicolas,
come, Come, St. Nicholas, and tra la la…
princess Mathilde of Belgium at the meeting of the bogeyman local in 2011. © JOHANNA GERON / BELGA / AFP
St. Nicholas is always greeted with joy by the school or during its parade in the cities, but the arrival of the bogeyman (which you will find the story a little later in this issue) is, unsurprisingly, less welcome among the children. But also sometimes with their parents : in 2014, a controversy took place in the netherlands at the start of the procession in the annual St. Nicholas… respect to the character of the allegedly racist character of Zwarte Piet, or Black Peter (the Dutch version of the bogeyman).
The legends of St. Nicholas
“Is it that you have been good children ?” – “Ouiiii” respond most of the time the more young people to the age-old question. Since the Middle ages, Saint Nicolas goes from home to home in the night of 5 to 6 December (this is what the legend says) to ask the children if they have been wise. Two options : the brats have been and receive gifts ; or they have not been conspicuous by their discipline and the bogeyman, a pair of St. Nicholas, gives them a correction.
Though Saint-Nicolas is so popular, this is because since the Middle Ages, he inherited a cap : that of the patron saint of schoolchildren. It is said that he owes it to his many miracles. And not just any. It would, for example, risen three poor schoolchildren cut into pieces by a butcher and thrown into a salting tub… Said boucher will give birth to the legend of the evil bogeyman (read below). Another legend tells the story of how the future “real” Father Christmas keeps a man in debt to sell his three daughters as slaves in order to escape (a classic method in Ancient times) : for three consecutive nights, the bishop of Myra throws enough money in the single family dwelling, (by the window or the fireplace, the versions differ), so that the father can pay off his debts and provide his daughters with a dowry. Another legend says that the good Saint Nicholas would be saved from the storm a ship carrying a cargo of wheat for the city of Myra. Stories inspired icons, byzantine real. Gradually, the tradition of Father Christmas would outpace that of its inspirer.
Saint Nicholas celebration in the nordic countries but also next to north-eastern quarter of France © Daisy DEMOOR – photo gallery Linternaute.com The story of St. Nicholas
Saint Nicolas boasts a look that’s recognizable (mitre on the head, stick in hand, and ecclesiastical habit on the back), because he was a bishop in another life ! It was the Fourth century in Asia minor – in other words, in the south-west of present-day Turkey. Victim of persecutions during the reign of Diocletian, Nicolas de Myre, as it was then called, made especially to speak of him after his death, on 6 December. We remember him as the protective, caring and generous, the widow, and the orphan.
And his past is particularly original : Nicolas de Myre is, therefore, born in Turkey, in a port of Anatolia, in the vicinity of the Third century of our era. He will become a bishop very young, in a part of Asia where the christian religion was in its infancy. Retired on an island, renamed the island Saint-Nicolas, it will then settle back to Myra, the modern city of Demre, which will give him his surname. It would be especially well-known in the early years for his fight against the pagan cults in this period of Christmas, yet made it to the ancient Greek gods. a
in The Sixteenth century, St. Nicholas suffered the ban in much of Europe, protestant reformation forces. But the Dutch keep the tradition of hot, and will even, as said above, the import of the other side of the Atlantic. Normal : they are among the first to colonize America, where they don’t forget to bring their “Sinterklass” (Saint Nicholas in Dutch). What to give Santa Claus (“Father Christmas” from the u.s.) a little later. Of american christians own the legend and the closer, in the modern version of the feast of Saint Nicholas, the coming of the Father Christmas of the birth of the baby Jesus. It will be his tour on the 24th of December ! This surrender to the taste of the day will not prevent other christians to remain faithful to the Saint Nicolas. Children of Lorraine are on to something. They have won a second Christmas…
