Defending Santa

They had a problem.

The people believed in a mythical gift-giver who would come in the middle of the night bearing gifts for those children who were good and switches for those who were bad. The rising generation had a stubborn belief in the traditions of this figure during the celebrations of wintertime. And it was just unacceptable. It was an impure and unholy practice. Something needed to change.

No, we’re not talking about St. Nicholas.

Ironically, this was the situation religious authorities faced as the early Christian churches sought to convert the masses from their pagan beliefs. Nicholas was one of the clergy who wrestled with this issue facing the church.

They worshipped gods that we tie in these times to the names of our week: Tiw, the god of war; Woden; mighty Thor; and Friga, a gentle mother goddess. But it was the goddess of the hearth, or fire, Bertcha, who was the pagan deity associated with children and bringing gifts to them that the early churches wanted to bring down.

Berchta was very un-Santa like. She was ugly. She had long, stringy hair, a long nose, huge teeth and large feet (the better to trample evil children). Despite her frightful appearance, she had a kind heart and would, during the pagan festivals of winter solstice, reward those homes she visited with blessings of good luck for the upcoming harvest if she found all was in order. Her visits were both feared and anticipated. Those who believed in her would leave out a meal of fish and dumplings and a sheaf of oats for her horse. During the twelve days of pagan Yule, Berchta played a conspicuous part.

It was said in the generations still clinging to her as a tradition that if the new god of Christianity could not accept the unbaptized child they would entrust their care to Berchta. This was but one example of the convenient mixing of the old and new ways.

To counter the pagan festivals held during the darkest days of the year, the councils of church leaders utilized the period to declare a season of more pure celebration in noting the birth of the Christ Child. It is not hard to see then that through the time and distance of this slowly evolving shift in spiritual beliefs that many practices of the old pagan ways blended and merged nicely with the celebrations of Christendom.

Over these opening centuries of Christian expansion many gift-givers going by many names surfaced in the local traditions with new found ties to the birth of Jesus Christ. In Italy, the tradition of Berchta had traveled south from Germany and she was given a Christian name, Befana.

Very witch-like in appearance like Berchta, Befana rides a broom and goes house-to-house on the eve of Epiphany, sliding down chimeys using her broomstick or coming through an open window. She leaves gifts for good children, and lumps of coal for those children who misbehaved. The really wicked children would sometimes be carried away by Befana, never to return.

Befana’s ties to Christ are legendary.

As she was sweeping away the dirt of a particularly evil home the Magi stopped and invited her to join them on their quest to bring gifts to the Newborn Babe. She refused, citing a need to finish her work. After contemplating the event some more, she had a change of heart and left the dirty house to join the Three Kings. She never found them. And to this day she travels from house to house, searching for the Baby Jesus, leaving behind presents for the good children she meets along the way.

Her story traveled north and east, where Baboushka in Russia enjoys much of the same legend. In Spain, the Three Kings are actually the bearers of the gifts for good children, according to local customs.

The passage of time has caused worlds of tradition to collide. As Berchta was slowly being phased out, the legend of St. Nicholas, ironically and surely without his approval, grew. He was, after all, a legendary figure known for charitable acts to children. The stories of his anonymous gift-giving were easily understandable by peoples who for generations had followed the pagan belief in Berchta. Though Nicholas had long since departed this mortal sphere, as a revered saint he continued to bless those who claimed belief in him.

One widely reported miracle occurred in the 12th century in France. Three students were traveling and fell into the hands of an evil innkeeper. While they were sleeping, the innkeeper stole their belongings, including a good sum of money. In an attempt to disguise the crime, the innkeeper killed the students and chopped their bodies into small parts and hid them in his pickle barrels. Saint Nicholas, enraged at the crime and seeking justice, caused the bodies to be resurrected and restored the young students to life.

Another miracle describes how Saint Nicholas prevented an unscrupulous Christian from cheating a Jewish moneylender. The story goes that the saint caused the Christian’s death in such as way as to reveal the hiding place of the money he had borrowed. The moneylender complained that if St. Nicholas was really the cause for finding the money he would not have allowed the guilty man to die. So St. Nicholas brought the Christian back to life, who then repented of his sin and repaid the debt.

The miracles accredited to Saint Nicholas are many and varied. In some he has rescued those in peril in the seas, he has returned the kidnapped, he has defended the falsely accused and he has been closely associated with many miracles involving money and finances.

Over time, the legends of his miracles and of his exploits of deeds in the flesh have come to bear one common element: his aid to the very young.

In Northern Europe, where the tale of the three students achieved great popularity, he is venerated as the patron saint of children. In this capacity, the tales of miracles long after his passing have commonly dealt with issues related to children – in all things from fertility to aiding children of the very poor.

It is not difficult then to see how the connections can conveniently be made to transform Berchta-the-pagan goddess into Nicholas, the saintly Christian as a bringer of gifts to good children.

St. Nicholas’ feast day is celebrated in early December. So was Berchta’s annual pilgrimmage. Tradition grew in western Europe that Saint Nicholas would come on his feast day riding on a white or a pale gray horse — the same as Berchta before him. He was said to visit every home, bringing treats and gifts to the good, and a rod or switches to the disobedient. He might have been a Bishop, but like Berchta the hearth was central to his gift bringing habits. Children would lay out their shoes, or, later, their stockings, and in them place hay for Saint Nicholas’ horse. Some said he would visit openly and interview the children asking if
their prayers had been said, as any Bishop would.

The legends and the myths of the past never really died under Saint Nicholas. In many cases, they became magnified. In some lands Berchta was believed to be attended by elves or sprites who would deliver the switches or ashes to the children who were disobedient. Over time, Saint Nicholas was said to be accompanied by a small, ugly creature who performed the same duty.

After a few hundred years of refining tradition, Saint Nicholas himself nearly fell victim to the same fate as Berchta. The Christian Reformation was a period where venerated saints and devotion to them was shunned. The Protestant churches began to teach that figures such as Saint Nicholas were not responsible for the bringing of gifts but that the Christ Child Himself should be given that credit. The traditions of Saint Nicholas’ feast day gave way to the mysterious appearance of gifts on Christmas Eve night thereafter.

For nearly 1500 years the legend of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, blended fact, ancient traditions and characteristics of many gift-bringers. He was championed in the Old World by church-goers and heathen alike.

But it was in the New World — America — where Saint Nicholas would transform even further.