Sawt al-Mara — page 21

It is believed that the origin of the giving of gifts at Christmas lies in the gifts the three Magi offered to Jesus, mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew. The legends current in the Middle Ages say that those Magi were Melchior, king of the Arabs, who offered gold as a sign of kingship; Gaspar, king of Tarsus, who offered myrrh as a sign of medicine; and Balthasar, king of Abyssinia, who offered frankincense as a sign of priesthood.

There are certain authorities who say that the origin of gift-giving goes back to a spiritual idea: the desire to show Christ's love for mankind and his unselfishness, by bringing joy to others and making them offerings. Add to this that Christ is God's gift to man, and so it became incumbent on the Christian to offer, in his turn, a gift to his brother man.

And there are other authorities who affirm that this custom is simply the survival of an old custom the pagans followed: the Romans used to give gifts at the feast of the Saturnalia.

It is fitting in this connection to touch on the alms given to the needy at Christmas. The current legend said that Jesus himself goes about on Christmas Eve in the form of a beggar asking for charity. Hence it was a duty to give alms to whoever asked for them on that eve, lest Jesus be turned away disappointed and God's wrath descend on that miserly house.

And who does not know Santa Claus? Which of us was never a child?..

Yet many may not know that Santa Claus is in his origin a real person, not a legendary one, and that he is none other than St. Nicholas himself..

St. Nicholas was born in Asia Minor, and from his childhood he cared nothing for merriment and play like his companions,

but devoted himself to the study of Holy Scripture. When his parents died he would not keep the inheritance for himself, and resolved to dispose of it in secret. And it happened that he heard there was a man in the city intending to sell his three daughters in the slave market, because he could not provide dowries for them. Nicholas hurried, and threw through the window (some say: through the chimney..) three bundles of gold coins, in three successive installments. And when the father learned their source, Nicholas charged him to let no one into his secret. (One of the stories says: one of the bundles fell into a stocking — and hence the origin of the tradition that gifts are put in stockings..)

St. Nicholas, who afterwards became an archbishop, died in 343. There is a great host of legends woven around him and around his gifts, which children still repeat, all hope and expectancy and longing...

Some historians hold, however, that the custom of Santa Claus coming down through the chimney and leaving gifts is an old pagan custom. The Germanic goddess Hertha used to do just that: she would come down through the chimney amid the smoke and guide the readers of the future. And the Germans used to bake cakes in the shape of a shoe, symbolizing Hertha's shoe, and put gifts in them for their children.

In ancient Rome cakes were baked in the shapes of animals and people and offered at the feasts as gifts to the members of the Senate. Afterwards they began to show great art in making them, and that custom passed to the Christians at the feasts of Christmas. In England it became the custom to give cakes to the poor women who go about at Christmas singing in the markets.

And from there the tradition of making cakes at Christmas and offering them spread.

The most common and widespread of Christmas traditions is the Christmas tree. And decorating the tree is one of those delights that old and young alike relish, and that both await with longing.

The custom of bringing the tree from the wild into the house is an old one. Its purpose was not only to bring nature within the walls of the house, but also — since it was believed that there are spirits in trees, as in all the creatures of nature — to bring those very spirits into the house. Houses used to be decorated with trees at the feast of Bacchus, god of wine. And they used to adorn the trees with suns and moons and stars.

In the tenth century a beautiful legend spread which goes back in its origin to an Arab Christian writer, a specialist in geography. The legend says: on the eve on which Jesus was born, all the trees in the forests blossomed and bore fruit, even the trees that were then wrapped in snow. And to this legend, which captivated the minds of the multitudes, goes back the tradition of decorating the house with the Christmas tree, and of decorating the tree itself.

But this tradition did not spread universally until the sixteenth century, when the tree became a symbol of Christ, the tree of life, and its ornaments a symbol of his gifts: light, life, and wisdom.