Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Santa on a boat?

Tonight was full of Santa Claus education for me. Our Belgian friend, Victoria, surprised us with a St. Nicholas feast. In Belgium, Santa comes to the kids on a steam boat, from Spain. He brings oranges and chocolates. He comes with his helper, called Black Peter, who is black because of the soot after sliding down the chimney. But originally, Black Peter came from the moors of Spain. The children leave their shoes out by the fire, and in the morning there are chocolates in the shoes. They also leave a bowl of water and a carrot for Santa's horse- there is no sleigh or reindeer, that is an American tradition.

In Turkey, Santa Claus is merely an American figure representing the Christmas holiday. However, in Turkey, if you ask a Turk if they celebrate Christmas, they would say yes. The Turks celebrate "Christmas" on New Years. They are the same thing. They decorate trees for New Years with ornaments and twinkle lights. It took me twenty minutes to explain the difference between Christmas and New Years to my students. Here, they are the same entity. It was only when I brought up the religiosity of Christmas did it make sense to them. Though, as Tas explained, in America, there are really two Christmas's- the religious one, and the commercial one.

But, the Santa Claus of all our childhoods came from a town in south central Turkey. So, it all comes full circle. I am celebrating the American religious version of Christmas in the birthplace of St. Nicholas, a hop-skip and a jump away from the original birthplace of Jesus in what is today, Palestine.

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