The figure of benevolence and fun we nowadays refer to as Santa Claus originated in the 4th Century in a part of the old Greek empire, which is now modern day Turkey. So whether Saint Nicholas of Myra spoke Turkish or Greek, it is hard to establish. If the former, he would today be known as Noel Baba, the latter Άγιος Βασίλης or Saint Basil and as a Bishop he was renowned at that time for his generous gifts to the poor.
700 years later his remains ended up in Bari as the Italian city sought to profit from the remains of the Saint, or Babbo Natale in Italian, for the burgeoning pilgrimage industry of that time.
The Irish have since disputed that Italy continues to hold the relics, and say that ‘Daidi Na Nollag’ was moved again, this time to the Emerald Isle, where his final resting place is cited as Jerpoint Abbey in Kilkenny.
The international desire to own Father Christmas doesn’t stop there. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of both Amsterdam and Moscow, where he is called Дед Мороз (Ded Moroz), or in English, ‘Grandfather Frost.’ The Dutch refer to him as Kerstman.
Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history and folklore, notably St Nicholas and Sinterklaas, merged with the British character Father Christmas to create the character known to Britons and Americans as Santa Claus. While the original Saint did have that distinguishing white beard, the anglicized version from the 17th Century starts to look even more recognisable to the modern audience – a jolly, rotund man, but with a green rather than red robe.
In Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’, Father Christmas’s cheerful character continued to take shape and it was a version of that vision that came ashore in colonial America to receive its final embellishment, where the British, Dutch and American perceptions fused.
In Washington Irving‘s History of New York, (1809), Sinterklaas was Americanized into “Santa Claus” (a name first used in the American press in 1773), a figure mockingly based on a thick set Dutch sailor, common to that era, and for the first time shedding the bishop’s clothing.
In 1863, a picture of Santa illustrated by cartoonist Thomas Nast appeared in Harper’s Weekly, and then in the 1930s, artist Haddon Sundblom added the final touch in his portrayal of Santa Claus for a Coca Cola advertising campaign.
It is that image, evolved over 1600 years, that has finally etched itself in the human mind as the true Santa Claus.
In between Irving and Sundblom’s efforts, Frank Baum’s ‘The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus’ confirmed Father Christmas’s raison d’être, spreading joy by bringing toys to children around the world.
Because of all of the countries in the world he must reach on Christmas Eve, Santa doesn’t yet have the time to stop and speak, or leave notes, to children on his travels. Should he ever decide to break with protocol, Today Translations has the global capacity to cope with all of his translation and interpreting needs.
Happy Christmas!
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Simultaneous translation
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