Living in a modern world where traditions are changing, every generation evolves and adapt to their culture. Normally, many communities cherish their traditional cultural roots while others embrace change. Therefore, proving evolving traditions are such a prominent factor in festive holidays, today. Christmas festivities associated with Christianity, Norse mythology, and European cultures are diverse. The festive, religious holiday thrives in today’s diverse cultures. Being celebrated vastly around the world, the array of unique activities associated with families, grow every year. Some families serve treats for Santa Claus to keep the Christmas spirit alive. However, the old-fashioned tradition of leaving treats for St. Nick, during Yuletide …show more content…
According to Kylie Mohr, a journalist of the National Public Radio, she states, “One of the first literary references to milk and cookies on Christmas in America appeared in the 1870s in the short story Polly: A Before-Christmas Story,” (Mohr). Concluding, they were settling in slowly, the new inhabitants of America did not celebrate Christmas Eve with milk and cookies until the Victorian era. The tradition grew with the popularity of the renowned authors of the …show more content…
According to the article, “Don’t Forget Santa’s Cookies and Milk: The History of a Popular Christmas Tradition,” “British and Australian children leave out sherry and mince pies, while Swedish kids leave rice porridge… Santa can expect a pint of Guinness along with his cookies when delivering toys in Ireland. French children leave out a glass of wine for Père Noël and fill their shoes with hay [and] carrots,” (Pruitt.) The old-fashioned American way is to leave out store-bought cookies or homemade cookies and milk. The reason for leaving out “cookies and milk for Santa” is done as a token of appreciation for Santa. (Pruitt). It teaches the children to appreciate the gifts that Santa has brought, for his time, and the responsibility of sharing with
Evidently, myths have become the culprit of traditions. That being said, the contemporary and ancient myths of Santa Claus and Krampus can only be understood by determining the elements that devise their entireties. Both narratives involve elements of opposition, trickery, mythemes, repetition, symbols, and ritualistic processes all of which support the structure of each holiday myth and tradition. Overall, the individual elements facilitate a valid, detailed compare and contrast analysis when examining the myths of Santa Claus and Krampus in a North American culture.
Is Santa truly a secular figure or is he a religious one? This has been a long-standing argument. However, instead of viewing Saint Nick as either secular or religious, it would be more beneficial to examine him as a figure consisting of both religious and secular elements. It is true that the contemporary Santa Claus may be more associated with secular concepts, such as consumerism, but it is also crucial to emphasize the origins of the jolly old man. He is the product of Western Christianization. It is thought that he was created from a combination of the historical figure of Saint Nicholas, a Christian saint, who was known for giving gifts, and the fictional character of Father Christmas from British folklore (CITE). Santa Claus can be viewed
Of all religious holidays that have been adopted by secularists, one of the most popular would be Christmas, originally meant to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. With the exact date of Jesus' birth unknown during ancient times, Christmas was initially assigned to January 6th, but was changed to December 25th under the influence of the winter solstice (Nothaft 903). Peculiarly however, is the universal celebration of Christmas al...
In Middle Age art, St. Nicholas was described as a tall, thin, bearded man. The red suit and white beard worn was similar to the bishop’s vestments. The American Santa was popularized my dutch settlers coming to New York telling stories of a man, after hearing stories of Sinter Klaas a department store dresses a man up as the dutch described him, he wore blue three-cornered hat, red waistcoat, and yellow stockings to a man wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a giant pair of Flemish trunk hose (3). John Pintard was a member of the New York Historical Society, he distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the society's annual meeting, they would be cravings of Santa images and stockings hanging from the fireplace filled with toys and fruit. (3) People came from all over to see the life size Santa. Santa didn't gain the plump and chubby look until the American poem from the 19th century, “Twas The Night Before Christmas”. This is when he gained the signature outfit of the red suit with white trim too. The reason they gave him the plump appearance is so the children would see him as more friendly and they would have nothing the fear (2). Santa grew even more popular, the Salvation Army started dressing some of the people up as Santa so they would be able to afford the free Christmas meals they handed out. From here the popularity of Santa grew across the
The increase and changing demography in the United State today, with the disparities in the health status of people from different cultural backgrounds has been a challenge for health care professionals to consider cultural diversity as a priority. It is impossible for nurses and other healthcare professionals to learn and understand theses diversity in culture, but using other approaches like an interpreter is very helpful for both nurses and patients. In this paper of a culturally appropriate care planning, I will be discussing on the Hispanic American culture because, I had come across a lot of them in my career as a nurse. The Hispanic are very diverse in terms of communication and communities and include countries like Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, South and Central America, and some of them speak and write English very well, some speaks but can’t write while some can’t communicate in English at all but Spanish.
Not only that, Santa Claus is influential in American culture because it’s like a religious figure. Actually, Santa is a story based on St. Nicholas who was a Greek Christian bishop of Myra. He gave away his wealth that he has and traveled other countries to help the poor. Because of his kindness, he is popular and well known as the protector of children and sailor. The history is fuzzy but the folktales based on the life of St. Nicholas and people admire him and celebrated on the anniversary of his death. I think that’s why Santa is important in American
What about other countries though? Is the Christmas season all about giving and receiving gifts? Are children in Spain rewarded by Santa with gifts and toys on Christmas Eve? In this essay we will look at what Christmas season means in Spain, and what traditions are prevalent in their culture. We will also look at the Christmas related traditions of Americans, and how those compare and contrast to those in Spain.
Before we examine the new Christmas celebration during the Victorian era in England- due to Mr. Dickens, we must review the pre- victorian, or Regency Period Christmas (1811-1820). The Regency Period was the contrary to popular belief, early Christmas celebrations were very much different than the Christmas we all know and love today. This Christmas was much more boring with “Simple decorations” according to Paula Wrightston. Unfortunately for the younger people Wrightston says that a Regency Christmas was more of an adult affair. Not only were traditions and age requirements different, but the actual dates differed as well with the first day of the season being the 24th of December running through the 6th of January making the Christmas season 12 days in length (Wrightston). So far it seems as if dickens’ made Christmas much more enjoyable for future generations most definitely. Although the early Christmas was different, some traditions never change. One example of this is the Christmas puddings, Wrightston says that although the Regency era people did not specifically have Christmas Pudding, they had a more liquified version of this t...
For every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we watch a movie outside around a fire and make s’mores. This is a tradition that, as I got older, I began including my friends in, and for the past few years it has been understood that when it’s a Saturday night in December, there are about 20 people at the William’s house drinking hot chocolate, laying in hammocks in the 40 degree weather, and watching classics like Elf or Miracle on 34th
Nicholas was revived through poetry and literature, during the 19th century, and Christmas was displayed as a family oriented holiday. These different types of literature start to shape our modern day image of St. Nicholas, Santa Claus. One of the first books to portray an illustration similar to Santa Claus was entitled “The Children’s Friend.” In this book, St. Nicholas was changed from a religious figure and shown as a man dressed in the fur of the Germanic gift bringers. This new figure brought gifts to good boys and girls in a thin wagon with only one reindeer, but he also disciplines the children who behaved improperly. Within the next year, the image of Santa took on a dramatic
The ends, or goals and aims, which are fought for, have changed. The goals and means of conflicts today are much different from those of the past. Peter Kiss, a scholar on asymmetric conflict, commented that tactics of the first and second generation of fighting were mainly linear tactics from a large army against another army on a defined battlefield. This type of war peaked in World War I, and gave way to the third generation of warfare, which is synonymous with nonlinear techniques of tricking the enemy. This type of warfare was at its height in 1967 and 1973 with the victories of the Israeli forces.
In my family, Christmas Eve is a time for food, gifts, and laughter. My family, in particular my mom and myself, spend hours in the kitchen on both Christmas Eve day, as well as the day before, preparing traditional French dishes. Typically, Christmas Eve is held at my mother’s house, which is packed to the rafters with the kids coming home for the holidays. My mother’s extended side of the family are normally invited, as well as my mother’s closest friends. Which of my mother’s friends are invited depends on how generous my mother is feeling (Crowther 2013:165). We observe a large Christmas Eve meal due to my maternal grandparents’ adamant Catholicism, in which practising Catholics take part in calendar-based feasts coinciding with significant religions events (ibid:155). We normally eat our Christmas Eve dinner at a rather early 4pm so the young kids can get to bed at a reasonable hour after opening presents.
In both the cinema and the chronicle, Scrooge (the main character) absolutely hated Christmas. His feeling toward the holiday always made him yell “Bah humbug!”, in both of the sources for A Christmas Carol. Along with this information, Scrooge also saw a Christmas spirit, or apparition. In both the flick and tale, he promised the ghost he would hold Christmas in his heart forever and let the spirits present, past, and future strive
Dutch children would put shoes by the fireplace for St. Nicholas or "Sinter Klaas" and leave food out for his horse. He'd gallop on his horse between the rooftops and drop candy down the chimneys into the children's shoes. Meanwhile, his assistant, Black Peter, was the one who popped down the chimneys to leave gifts behind. Dutch settlers brought the legend of Sinter Klaas to North America -- where we came to know him as Santa Claus. Clement Clarke Moore first described the “jolly old elf” with his sleigh drawn by reindeer, in the poem "The Night Before Christmas.
Most people know that our Santa Claus today originated from St. Nicholas, but the derivation of the Santa Claus story comes from many sources. In fact, since the Catholic church in 1969 demoted St. Nicholas from his official saintly status (as there were no records of his having been canonized), the original legend of this third century Turkish bishop is not widely recognized as part of our Christmas celebration.