View
247
Download
0
Category
Tags:
Preview:
Citation preview
Santa Claus: executed!The booklet of Lévi-Strauss on the origins of Christmas traditions
Vesa Matteo Piludu
Imatra, 2009
University of Helsinki
Department of Art Research, Semiotics
Santa: connects the unconnected!
As all of you are aware, the “original” Santa Claus live in Korvatunturi fell, near Rovaniemi, far north in Finnish Lapland!
Santa’s webpage: http://www.santaclausvillage.info/fin/etusivu.htm
Strange but a real post office!
From Santa’s webpage:
“Santa Claus’ Main Post Office, a building of handsome natural stone and aged pine, is in Santa’s Workshop Village on the Arctic Circle.
There you can feel the Christmas spirit every day of the year and be served by merry post office elves in seven languages!
Each year, Santa’s Workshop Village and the Main Post Office are visited by about half a million people. You can come, too!”
A Swede Santa on the beach
Grandfather Frost and the Snowmaiden
The Russian Ded Moroz (Дед Мороз) plays a role similar to that of Santa Claus
He brings presents to children, during the celebrations of the New Year
It has a granddaughter: Snegoruchka, the beautiful Snowmaiden.
Unfortunately she melts away every spring but returns each winter much to everyone’s delight.
American Santa’s gym
The Italians have strange (miss)conceptions about Santa
The Japanese Santa - Hello Kitty
Santa Black Cat
France, 1951:Burn, Santa! Burn!
The 24th of December 1951 the newspaper France-Soir titled: “Santa Claus has been burned in front of the Dijon’s Cathedral!”
250 children were obliged to be present and some of them burn the beard of a Santa puppet
The French priests defined the just-burned an “heretic” and an “usurper” and
accused him to be a “dangerous” element of “paganisation” of the truly Christian spirit of the festivities
The clerks wrote: “Santa has been sacrificed in a holocaust! A falsehood couldn’t reawake the religious
feeling in our children!”
Santa according to the Dijon’s priests: heretic, pagan, usurper, a bad example for children …
Santa was executed in front of the Cathedral Notre Dame of Dijon
Crucified Santa
Another Santa’s funeral in 2000
Freaky Christmas 2: Santa raises again!
With the total disappoint of the new inquisitors … Santa raised again from the ashes, after few hours
Exactly at the 18:00, 24th of December 1951, in the City Hall of Dijon. The just-killed Santa spoke to the children from the roof of the city hall, as all the years!
The City authorities decided to “save” the poor Santa from the atrocities of the local Church
The media reactions and the problem of Lévi-Strauss
Generally, all the French newspapers accused the cruelty of the Djion’s priests, asking: ”What’s wrong with Santa? He’s so cute, and the Children like him so much!”
According to Levi-Strauss, the central problem wasn’t if the children liked Santa or not, but why the adults created Santa.
(Lévi-Strauss C., 2002 (third edition). Babbo Natale giustiziato, Sellerio, Palermo. Page 49).
Inversion of roles
Lévi-Strauss noticed that in the weird Djion’s
affair priests burned religious traditions …
While politicians, rationalists and atheists defended and resurrected Santa
There was a clear inversion of social roles
Santa USA
Lévi-Strauss noticed that Christmas wasn’t so important in France before
the 2nd World War
The status of the Christmas clearly upraised with the influence of the USA
But the USA’s imperialism and the Marshall’s plan can’t
be conceptual jollies to explain all the problems of modern French popular culture
Kroeber’s stimulus diffusion
Lévi-Strauss citated Kroeber’s theory of the stimulus diffusion to explain the rapid diffusion of the modern Christmas in France:
“an imported custom is like a catalytic center: it brings the creation of a similar native custom that was in a potential state in the influenced culture” (Ibidem, page 53)
A confuse Christmas fir
The modern Christmas version doesn’t invent nothing, it only resets confusedly elements of different tradition and times
Even the Christmas fir isn’t an homogeneous tradition
At the time of Littré, our famous Christmas tree was only a poor fir branch ornamented with sweets and games for children
The Christmas fir mixes separate traditions: the magic tree, the fire, the never ending light, the evergreen
(Ibidem, pages 54-56)
Santa’s analysis
Santa Claus, according to Lévi-Strauss is a kind of king dressed in red, color of royalty
The clothes, the beard, the sledge are all winter symbols
In Italian is called “Babbo Natale” (Daddy Christmas)
Santa is old and represent the kind aspect of the authority of the old ones
Santa Cult
According to Lévi-Strauss Santa is a kind of semi-god … and the children venerate him during the Christmas sending letters and prays
Santa rewards the good ones and punish the bad boys
It’s a divinity revered only during the childhood
The adult don’t believe in Santa, but they encourage their Children to believe in him
(Ibidem, pages 58-59)
Santa and Katchina (Pueblo, South West’s Natives)
The katchinas are Hopi parents disguised and masked … they incarnates ancestors
The masked parents returns periodically to the villages to reward or punish children
Santa and Katchinas had the same ”moral” function
According to Lévi-Strauss the Katchinas and Santa have the same function: convince children to be obedient and kind
The Christmas time limits the request of children in a certain part of the year
The identity of the Katchinas
Leví-Strauss consider the Christmas a situation in which there is a translation and an exchange between generations
The same situation is found in the Hopi traditions of the Pueblos
The katchinas are the souls of the first native children, disappeared in a river during the period of the mythical emigrations
The katchinas went back periodically to the pueblo villages and they took some children with them
The parents asked the katchinas to stay in the otherworld: they will represent them during the rituals
The katchinas are a manifestation of the death and at the same time a representation of life after death
The katchinas are the children, the humans that are nearest to the world of the souls … as the newborn came from the world of the dead
Life and death
In the katchina rituals the initiates are the adults, the living ones, the masked
The uninitiated are the children, unmasked, representing the souls of the dead children
The exchange between the adults and children represents and exchange between life and death
Santa and the ”Lords of Misrule”
Lévi-Strauss (page 65) argued that the original figure of Santa could be a bricolage of many different characters:
The ancient Roman Saturnus Abbé de Liesse Abba Stultorum Abbé de la Malgouverné Lord of Misrule The Scandinavian Julebok Saint Nicolaus – Nicola
All this figures were ”kings” during the Christmas time or in December, the darkest month of the winter, fulfilled with souls and ghosts
Saturnus
Saturn or Saturnus deity of harvest from serere, " to sow."
“the lord of the fieldfruits”
Saturn's wife was Ops
Saturn was the father of Ceres and Jupiter
Saturday is dies Saturni
Saturn was the first King of Latium (from Latere)
His city was on the top of the Capitoline Hill (Saturnia). He is said to have had an altar at the foot of the Capitol before Rome was founded.
King of the Golden Age
Temple of Saturn in Rome: the older temple dated from 497 BC but the ruins are from 42 BC. It contained the treasure of the Roman state.
The Saturnalia
The celebration in honour of Saturnus were celebrated from the 17th to the 24th of December
The saturnalia were the festival of the larvae, the souls of the spirits dead in violent circumstances or without a proper burial
The Church decided to fix the Christmas more or less in the same days to ”cover” the pagan celebrations
Saturnalia
The Saturnalia had carnival’s aspects, but the festivity had also strong aspects of social solidarity
The slaves were served by the patrons
The children, near to the souls’ world, received presents, puppets and candles
The festival was a celebration of the Golden Age
A Medieval evil Santa: the abbot of unreason
Scotland had an official similar to the English Lord of Misrule, known as the Abbot of Unreason (suppressed in 1555), and both are thought by scholars to be descended from the “king” or “bishop” who presided over the earlier Feast of Fools
The abbot had a senseless conduct, including blasphemy, robbery and, in some extreme cases, homicides and rapes
Abbé de Liesse
He was a bishop-child, elected by an invocation of Saint Nicolas
He was ”in charge” the 25th of December
Other bishop-children were proclaimed the 28th of December, the day of the Innocent
“In England there was this great tradition that on the feast of St Nicholas... a child, the smallest chorister of the choir, became the bishop”The Reverend Carrie Thomps on BBC, Monday, 8 December 2008
Old Christmas as Halloween?
The Medieval Christmas time, as the Saturnalia, mixed element of solidarity with the most brutal excess
The Abbé de Liesse was enthroned by the authorities and he should control that the excess didn’t overflow into violence
What about the other children? They wander masked from home to home singing … and they receive fruit and sweets
The Medieval Christmas was something very similar to Halloween
Ghost-Children singing death’s songs … and waiting for sweets or bread
The Scottish children sung these verses during Christmas:
Rise up, good wife, and be no swier (lazy)To deal your bread as long’s you’re
here;The time will come when you’ll be dead,And neither want nor meal nor bread
The children were representative of the world of the dead, mentioning death in the songs … and they expect a proper behavior from the adults (generosity, activity)
All this elements are quite evident in modern Halloween
According to some traditions, Saint Nicolas resuscitates dead children
Julebok – Joulu pukki – Christmas Goat
It’s a goat-demon of Scandinavian origins, lord of the subterranean world. It gave children presents.
In Finland … joulupukki or nuuttipukki was a man disguised in goat-man clothes, symbol of death and fertility, a bit shamanistic
The nuuttipukki asked for alcohol and was dreadful for children
Sometimes the nuuttipukki gives children presents, if they were kind
the nuuttipukki – figure was transformed in the modern joulupukki, Santa Claus … even if in his name he is still a “goat (pukki) of Christmas (joulu)”!
The Christmas elves or gnomes
In Scandinavia and Finland Santa is helped by elves or dwarves (tonttu in modern Finnish)
As for Julebok, also these fantastic creatures are connected to the underground world of death and fertility
Tomte in ancient Swedish means ”Master spirit” (haltija)
The dwarves are a recent addition to Christmas
(XIX century)
The Befana
In Italy Babbo Natale (Santa) has a curious female counterpart: the witch-like Befana, who gives sweets to the children on 6th of January.
This Befana appears to be heir at law of a certain heathen Sabine/Roman goddess called Strenia, who presided over the new-year's gifts, Strenae
La Befana vien di notte!
La Befana vien di notteCon le scarpe tutte rotteCol vestito alla romanaViva, Viva La Befana!
The English translation is:
The Befana comes by nightWith her shoes all tattered and tornShe comes dressed in the Roman wayLong life to the Befana!
A matter of death and life!
All these traditional winter celebrations (saturnalia, Hopi’s Katchinas, Medieval and Scandinavian Christmas’ traditions, Halloween and even Carnivals) … seems to be marked by a common element:
All this rituals celebrates social role’s inversions and an exchange between the living and the dead: the dead spirits (children or Goat-demons) will leave the winter only after receiving presents ... After these rituals the spring and the life will come back
The dead role isn’t only negative, they are also life-bringer: the dead ancestor s will resurrect in the newborns
To rise Hell in children is to express otherness
During the winter festivities there was a real hellrising
sometimes the adults represent the dead souls (the Julebok and the nuuttipukki) … but more often the representative of the ghosts are the children (Ancient Rome, Medieval Christmas, Halloween)… which are less incorporated in the social system
The dead celebrations of winter are first of all festivals of otherness (children, slaves, immorality) … as the dead are the other par excellence
Santa Claus and Saint Nikolaus
Lévi Strauss didn’t analyze in deep the relation between Santa Claus and Saint Nikolaus …
But there is a relevant similitude between them
Santa Claus is an abbreviation of Saint Nikolaus, who wasn’t Finn at all … Nikolaus was born in Myra, in modern Turkey
It was a bishop, so he has the typical red clothes of the bishops
Nikolaus was a protector of young ladies and saved tree young virgins from a destiny of prostitution throwing money through their window
The dowry for the three virgins (Gentile da Fabriano, c. 1425, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome).
Saint Nikolaus
Later Saint Nikolaus became the protector of the children, of the seamen, of the cattle, of bears… and the patron of the whole Russian Orthodox church
According to the Christian tradition it was buried in South Italy, in the Bari’s Cathedral of San Nicola
From South Italy, his cult spread in all continental Europe
Saint Nikolaus is a strong and clear representation of Christian solidarity and generosity
Gentile da Fabriano, c. 1425. Pinacoteca Vaticana
San Nicola’s cathedral, Bari, Italy
The tomb of San Nicola in Bari, as it appears today
Russian Icon of Saint Nikolai
The feast of the Translation
In May (9 or 22) the Russian Orthodox Church celebrate the feast of the "Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Bari".
Who is the modern Santa Claus?
Obviously a kind of cultural Frankenstein or bricolage
He incorporates in a creative way elements of quite all the past Winter festivals’ fantastic figures analyzed by Lévi-Strauss
At the same time Santa is the representation of an ideal of generosity
He is someone that gives without the desire to have something back. In this he resembles clearly the old Saint Nikolaus.
Recommended