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The REAL Santa Claus

George Washington's picture




 

Saint Nicholas was a real, historical person.

But he didn’t live in some snowy Northern place like the North Pole or Scandinavia. And he probably wasn’t fair-skinned with ruddy cheeks.

He lived in the town of Myra – on the Southern Coast of Turkey – in the fourth century (it was then part of Greece). So he likely had an olive-colored, Mediterranean complexion:

Icon c 1500 St Nicholas.JPGRussian icon depicting St Nicholas with scenes from his life. Late 1400s or early 1500s. National Museum, Stockholm

And he didn’t ride a magic sleigh driven by flying reindeer, have a workshop full of elves, squeeze through chimneys with belly-defying dimensions, or maintain a naughty-or-nice list rivaling the NSA.

The real St. Nick came from a wealthy family, and his parents died in an epidemic when he was young.  Nick used his large inheritance to help the poor.

For example, poor young girls were likely to be sold into slavery because they didn’t have a dowry with which to attract a husband.  So on 3 occasions, Nicholas threw a bag of gold into a poor girl’s house through an open window … enough to provide a dowry so the girl could get married.

The bags of gold are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left in front of the fire to dry.  This led to the custom of kids hanging stockings or putting out shoes, hoping for gifts from Saint Nick.

Wikipedia notes:

He had a reputation for secret gift-giving … and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, itself from a series of elisions and corruptions of the transliteration of “Saint Nikolaos”.

My wife and I visited Nick’s church in Myra (now called Demre) on the beautiful Antalya coast of Turkey, where he served as Bishop for many years.

In addition to the bags of gold mentioned above, Wikipedia notes another basis for the Christmas stocking tradition: St. Nick put coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him.

Further information.

 

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Sat, 12/27/2014 - 06:55 | 5595716 Overdrawn
Overdrawn's picture

Who cares who these people were or originally came from or what they looked like ethnically speaking?  Fact is Hollywood and the rest of the media can't sell people who don't look like Brad Pitt, Daniel Craig or Tom Cruise.

Cleopatra was originally black and bald, Elizabeth Taylor was much more beautiful and appealing thus made more money for the studios. Seriously, would you have watched Cleopatra in 1963 or whenever if some black bald women had the lead?  The film would never have been made if it had to be authentic.

Sat, 12/27/2014 - 08:18 | 5595781 YuShun
YuShun's picture

Wikipedia shows Cleopatra's family tree as being not Egyptian at all, but Macedonian.

Sat, 12/27/2014 - 06:57 | 5595712 Overdrawn
Overdrawn's picture

I prefer Coke-a-colas version of Father Christmas,  who would sit their children on the knee of someone who looked like St. Nicholas?  Seriously.

Sat, 12/27/2014 - 00:44 | 5595325 Victory_Garden
Victory_Garden's picture
Six Kinds of Currency That Might Emerge after the Collapse - See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/six-kinds-of-currency-that-might-emerge-a... Six Kinds of Currency That Might Emerge after the Collapse - See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/six-kinds-of-currency-that-might-emerge-a...

Six Kinds of Currency that might emerge after the collapse:

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/six-kinds-of-currency-that-might-emerge-a...

 

Six Kinds of Currency That Might Emerge after the Collapse - See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/six-kinds-of-currency-that-might-emerge-a...
Sat, 12/27/2014 - 00:48 | 5595349 Victory_Garden
Victory_Garden's picture

Sorry, not sure what the flock happened here.

Can not delete all the extra baggage.

????????????

 

Sat, 12/27/2014 - 00:47 | 5595323 Victory_Garden
Victory_Garden's picture
Six Kinds of Currency That Might Emerge after the Collapse - See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/six-kinds-of-currency-that-might-emerge-a... Six Kinds of Currency That Might Emerge after the Collapse - See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/six-kinds-of-currency-that-might-emerge-a...

.

 

Six Kinds of Currency That Might Emerge after the Collapse - See more at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/six-kinds-of-currency-that-might-emerge-a...
Fri, 12/26/2014 - 22:18 | 5594968 Grouchy Marx
Grouchy Marx's picture

I'm not sure what olive skinned means. In my fridge I have green olives and purple olives, and I've never seen anybody those hues, except for my college friend Jeff when he drank too much and would alternate between those colors; but that was temporary. 

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 21:27 | 5594853 thegr8whorebabylon
thegr8whorebabylon's picture

GOLDEN BALLS!  Nic o'Smirna gave the girls 'golden balls' where I come from.  ;)   Also, every time somebody says it's all just a fairy tale, they dig up some proof in a minute.  Better to believe everything with a lil' salt.

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 21:54 | 5594931 Lets Buy The Dip
Lets Buy The Dip's picture

indeed, I know there were a lot of bears in here on Zh screaming for a crash, however, what I found intersteing is that the VIX has been selling off hard the last few weeks, and the market is hitting new highs today SEE HERE ==> http://bit.ly/1fMcakI

I think anyone looking for the S&P or stock market to crash here, better not hold their breadth. Santa is coming to town, looks like a full on santa clause rally. 

Maybe next year we get a crash, but it seems everytime the market crashes, like it did back in OCT 2014, the SMART MONEY just comes right back in to BUY it up! Dont you JUST love it. :-) Get em short, and then rip their tits off. OUCH!

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 20:58 | 5594756 logicalman
logicalman's picture

Wisdom from grandfather....

He used to say to me "all the world's mad, except for me and thee - and I'm not so sure about thee!"

Always stuck in my head.

 

 

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 20:47 | 5594727 The Alarmist
The Alarmist's picture

Hey, GW:  Are we supposed to be shocked and repelled that St. Nick might have been olive skinned?

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 18:07 | 5594397 BeagleOne
BeagleOne's picture

Excellent Commentary G.W.

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 07:12 | 5592576 nmewn
nmewn's picture

So lemme see if I got this straight.

Ole St.Nick was basically "a good Trust Fund Baby" because he gave some of his family's wealth back to the poor huddled masses who had it stolen from them by his evil, money grubbing forebearers.

Who apparently had, olive colored skin too ;-)

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 08:27 | 5592623 messystateofaffairs
messystateofaffairs's picture

Could you provide a reference explaining how St. Nicks parents made their money?

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 19:29 | 5592709 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Well, the St.Nick GW is describing would be of Myra. He lived during the time of Christian persecutions by the Romans (Diocletian & Maximian) and he is one of the patron saints of fishermen, so from this we can assume his parents had a fishing fleet of some sort.

My comment was a sarcastic slam on many things, the modern automatic knee jerk reaction that all inherited wealth derives from some nefarious activity so its undeserved, is idle because the state doesn't have its hands all over it and of course...only white skinned people do these things, never olive skinned people ;-)

/////

So what is the problem with my anonymous junkers this time? The Christians were being persecuted, St.Nicholas was offsetting some of that spiritually and materially, he did inherit his wealth and very few Christians (if any) were in positions of power within the Roman state and he more than likely had olive skin.

I know the truth is like holy water to a vampire with you statists, leftists & atheists but at least try and make a counter argument...lol.

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 21:03 | 5594773 logicalman
logicalman's picture

Atheists have no problem with truth - don't lump them in with statists and leftists.

I'm an atheist, I only believe in only one less god than Christians do.

Anyone judging a person based on the level of melanin in their outer dermal layers is likely a poor judge.

 

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 21:20 | 5594832 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Well two "of something" certainly had a problem with what I said and there's only three avenues to travel in finding out as far as I can tell (forgoing an agitator just wanting to see a fight). It was either leftists, statists or atheists or a combination of two out of the three in my opinion.

Everything I said is historically correct as far as I know or anyone can determine, thus the entreaty to prove me wrong on one or all points.

If no one takes up the offer or the points made, then it stands on its own as truth, regardless of GW's focus on melanin ;-)

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 21:54 | 5594925 logicalman
logicalman's picture

Not one of your junkers

As for proving you wrong, your references would be hard to prove, one way or the other, given history is written by those in power.

I just can't understand how anyone could believe in any of the gods presented to us on planet earth, given the evidence, or lack thereof.

 

Sat, 12/27/2014 - 07:46 | 5595752 spoonful
spoonful's picture

As a little kid reading comic books, it seemed peculiar that superman is not real, but god, who has even greater powers, does exist.      

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 23:19 | 5595114 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Oh, I know you're not one of the junkers, you have the class to back up whatever you say. As for your belief or faith (however one describes it) in atheism or mine in God, thats not part of this discussion, we're staying on earth, in the material world. Pointing out the fact that Christians were being persecuted by the Roman state, local or otherwise (for their beliefs) invites no discussion on that level.

This discussion is a slap from me to them (at the junkers) who I knew would junk me for saying that material wealth can be used for good or evil by an individual.

They just don't want to admit it, it screws em all up in the head ;-) 

Thu, 12/25/2014 - 22:51 | 5592172 Seize Mars
Seize Mars's picture

He also punched the shit out of a heretic.

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 01:00 | 5592368 Victory_Garden
Victory_Garden's picture

And, He cleansed the House of evil ca-ca-roach banksters/moneychangers!

Thu, 12/25/2014 - 21:44 | 5591987 Victory_Garden
Victory_Garden's picture

Bless'ed greetings and a belated Merry Christmas to you Sir GW(EZ).

Same same to all the good hearts here contributing positivity and awareness for the empowerment of ALL!

 

Thu, 12/25/2014 - 20:06 | 5591869 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Claude Lévi-Strauss believed there was not one "authentic" version of a myth. Rather, all the versions of the myth combined ARE the myth.

One of my favourite versions of Santa Claus:

http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2003/12/18/psychedelic-secrets-Santa-Claus

The Psychedelic Secrets of Santa Claus

By Dana Larsen, December 18, 2003.

That "modern Christmas traditions were based on ancient mushroom-using shamans" can be backed up by lots of other sources, listed under that article, as well as a review of the role of the pineal gland and the mushroom images by guys like David Wilcock, etc. ...

Anyway, that article I linked above explicitly states:

Some psychologists have discussed the "cognitive dissonance" which occurs when children are encouraged to believe in the literal existence of Santa Claus, only to have their parents' lie revealed when they are older. By so deceiving our children we rob them of a richer heritage, for the actual origin of these ancient rituals is rooted deep in our history and our collective unconscious. By better understanding the truths within these popular celebrations, we can better understand the modern world, and our place in it.

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-01-01/santa-claus-lie-–-gateway-drug-collective-self-deception

The Santa Claus Lie – A Gateway Drug to Collective (Self) Deception

LEGALIZED LIES

BACKED UP WITH

LEGALIZED VIOLENCE.

By themselves, the lies would be amusing absurdities.

BUT, when the frauds are enforced, then they matter!

As I like to ask:

"How far down the rabbit hole does Alice go?"

or "How far up the tornado does Dorothy go?"

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 21:47 | 5594912 logicalman
logicalman's picture

Religion seems, to me to be a way of getting people to accept things without any evidence. Belief in bullshit, basically.

Kids know about the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause and God.

They soon learn that 3 of the 4 are bullshit - how does the other one manage to keep going?

Have you read anything regarding DMT?

Having done a reasonable amount of research regarding psylocybin and LSD, ;-) it sounds interesting, to say the least.

 

 

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 23:15 | 5595108 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

logicalman, I have never done DMT, nor ayahuasca

Indeed, what the authorities about that describe is very interesting. However, personally, I no longer enjoy psychedelic drugs, as I used to greatly enjoy when I was younger, since I no longer have the slightest shred of optimism nor idealism left regarding the foreseeable future for most human beings, including myself.

When I was younger I had many GREAT TIMES and WONDERFUL ADVENTURES consuming psychedelic drugs. However, since about 2008, I found that I could no longer enjoy those things like I used to be readily able to do when I was younger.

In my view, the two worst State Religions that most people still believe in are the Monetary System and National Security. Those work together as the combined money/murder systems, whereby the debt controls are backed by the death controls, which maintain the financial systems of ENFORCED FRAUDS, which control what civilization actually does, in ways which enable the vast majority of people to have attitudes of evil deliberate ignorance towards the real world, since their social situation is so totally dominated by their beliefs in the biggest bullies' bullshit.

Therefore, private banks continue to make the public "money" supply out of nothing, as debts, which is obviously FRAUD, but which is nevertheless ENFORCED by governments. The consequences of that are automatically getting worse, faster. However, everything I have done, and continue trying to do, in the political arena, has absolutely convinced me that not only do 99% of the people act like incompetent political idiots, but also there are no good grounds to have any reasonable hopes that will ever improve within my life.

The privatization of "God" enabled the privatization of the environment. The whole history of civilization has primarily been backing up bigger lies with more violence, with the current forms being our apparently faith-based "money," which is overtly backed by nothing, but covertly backed by the power of governments to ENFORCE THOSE FRAUDS, which primarily serve the interests of those who are closer to the SOURCES of that "money" being made out of nothing.

Overall, I have reached the conclusion that the world has developed syndromes of runaway criminal insanities, because the vast majority of people believe in bullshit, while the biggest bullshitters work hard to keep that system going, by continuing to back up their lies with violence, which continues to be horribly successful. The ruling classes waged a war against the consciousness of those they ruled over for generation after generation. That is how and why lies become triumphant, and end up being supported by the slaves that were conditioned to not only believe those lies, but also want to continue to believe those lies.

As far as I can tell, all of the socially significant old-fashioned religions and ideologies were forms of controlled opposition, that promoted the biggest bullies' bullshit world view, through generation after generation of those successfully operating systems of organized lies backed by violence. The majority of people act like "Uncle Toms," in the sense that they have internalized the bullies' bullshit, to the degree that they want to continue to believe in that. I am quite certain that at least 99% of the people are like that. Most of the remaining 1% work to try to keep them like that. There is only a tiny, tiny fraction of 1% of the population that is not almost totally trapped within the ways that they think being almost totally based on bullshit.

Given that is the way that I currently look at the real world, I no longer bother to consume any psychedelic drugs, because drugs that tend to increase my consciousness tend to only increase the degree to which I am aware of living inside of a criminally insane society, that I can do nothing practical to ameliorate.

Sat, 12/27/2014 - 00:37 | 5595306 MEAN BUSINESS
MEAN BUSINESS's picture

It's good to see more people discussing things with you RM. The other reason I opened a Zero Hedge account was that I wasn't content to see your ideas go virtually undiscussed. I'm not the sharpest tool in this shed but I'm not too afraid of the sharpening stone. 

I left you a reply after we were talking about Evo Morales and just wanted to mention that the point I was trying to make was that I think it would be a benefit to the process and everyone affected by the process ("all life is your life") if you were to give him a crash course in death controls : )

Maybe you already are!?!

Thanks!

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 00:55 | 5592354 Victory_Garden
Victory_Garden's picture

Darn Rad, just about to kick it and enjoy the White Christmas, rainbow lights, a grand dinner, icicles forming off the roof in the front window with the most amazing natural background you can imagine, and just now read this after the earlier Christmas wish post.

Sir, you are exactly on point and totally right here. Same with our good heart, GW. Both of you are exactly correct. Now, imagine a society of Initiated/Anointed Messiahs/Saviors, or Christ Jesus's walking the planet today.

Been writing a book for about ten years or better around this very subject. It will include many references and quotations from many books, as well as knowledge from experiences. Gonna review this story above that you linked to and possibly use some of it also as references, and research.

This writer, who as everyone knows is not perfect in english and grammar, but still has mucho to express and tons of Light/knowledge to share, would be honored to have you sir, RM, proofread the finished work for errors and typos and all around structure when it is finished. Hopefully, it will come forth BEFORE the Armageddon in the economic world, and BEFORE the planned world war in March. Many of our boys and girls are being told they are going to get transferred over to europe/Germany in the February-March time period. If they are sending equipment there now, and men and women there early in the year, it says to all that the warmongering is not to far off in the distance. Same as Iraq. Prepositioned equipment, and men to follow.

Selah.

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 14:57 | 5593872 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Victory_Garden, like everyone else, I have a finite amount of time to spend proofreading any book, and I would not continue to do so unless I enjoyed reading it while doing so. Anyway, I am available to Contact

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 23:48 | 5595182 Victory_Garden
Victory_Garden's picture

Roger roger!

Thankx!

Thu, 12/25/2014 - 19:21 | 5591801 a growing concern
a growing concern's picture

Anyone putting bullion in shoes is welcome at my house anytime. Might be a fun tradition to start with the kiddos.

Thu, 12/25/2014 - 23:39 | 5592247 Stormtrooper
Stormtrooper's picture

When my grandson turned 9, I gave him an ounce of silver for his birthday.  He was a little confused as to what value it might have.  When he turned 10, I gave him another ounce of silver.  I've been hyping the value of gold and silver to him as real money since.  I think that it has gotten thru to him as every once in a while he asks me the current value of silver in dollars.  This birthday (tomorrow), he will receive two ounces of silver.

My next step will be to begin educating him as to the value of gold and silver as commodities of inherent value in terms of what he should be able to exchange them for against other commodities(beef, pork, wheat, etc) when funny money dies its final death and cannot be used any longer as a gauge of value for precious metals.  I've used "The Cole Report" as a starting point for values (listing of numerous commodity prices in America from the mid-1700's to 1861 when the value of an ounce of gold remained steady at $20.67/ounce).  That will probably be the most difficult lesson as most Americans have no clue as to what constitutes real money.

Next year, I think that the birthday present will include 5 grams of gold if it is still available on the markets.  Gotta start with the young.  They are the future.

Thu, 12/25/2014 - 19:37 | 5591834 s2man
s2man's picture

A couple of years ago, when silver was up, I winked at my BIL and said, "let's see if they (nephews and neice) will take silver or cash".  I offered them their choice between a silver dollar (~$25 value) or $20 bill.  They all took the cash...

 

Thu, 12/25/2014 - 23:01 | 5592191 OldPhart
OldPhart's picture

Did you first attempt to de-program their education on the relative merits between the two?  Otherwise, you were being a rather smug asshole sort of Uncle.

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 00:37 | 5592339 willwork4food
willwork4food's picture

He wasn't trying to be smug, he was just explaining what happened. That said, I bet uncle bob is typed and catagorized as a ZH nutcase around the fam. I am too. Wouldn't want it any other way.

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 20:46 | 5594720 The Alarmist
The Alarmist's picture

Yeah, but your nephews unwittingly erred on the right side of the deal, since the discount on the silver and the hassle of redeeming it rendered it worth somewhat less than $20 in fiat.

Fri, 12/26/2014 - 23:02 | 5595083 Self-enslavement
Self-enslavement's picture

Reading Google "Chosenite" news this evening, they're ecstatic about printing themselves money for free while the Christian Gentiles murder the Islamic Gentiles for them. After the Islamics are gone, they will then of course kill off all us Christians. You can count on it.

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