How did this man in a red suit and white beard become the poster boy for Christmas, and how did he sleigh his way to India?
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Every child believes in him.
00:08He makes Christmas merrier by bringing gifts every year.
00:12Well, well, well.
00:13Say hello to Santa Claus, or as the legend has it, Saint Nicholas.
00:22Legend has it that Saint Nicholas was a Christian bishop born into an affluent family during
00:27the 3rd century in modern day Turkey.
00:29It is said that he was an ardent follower of Jesus Christ and used the money left behind
00:35by his parents to help those who needed it the most.
00:39For this noble gesture, he is remembered as the patron saint of sailors, children and
00:44prostitutes.
00:46After his death, Saint Nicholas Day was celebrated on 6th December as a day of gift-giving across
00:52Europe.
00:54In the 18th century, Dutch families who moved to the U.S. introduced Saint Nicholas Day
00:58to America.
01:00The Dutch would refer to Saint Nicholas as Sinterklaas.
01:03And over the years, the name got a makeover and turned into the Santa Claus we all know.
01:09Legend has it that Saint Nicholas inspired the famous Christmas tradition of stuffing
01:14stockings with gifts.
01:16He was known to have dropped some gold in a poor man's house who didn't have money
01:20to marry off his three daughters.
01:22According to folklore, Santa got connected with Christmas in 1821, when an illustrated
01:28poem titled The Children's Friend showed Santa in a sleigh pulled by reindeers.
01:34Historian and author of Santa Claus, A Biography, Jerry Bowler noted that the poet connected
01:39Saint Nicholas' hobby of bringing gifts with Christmas.
01:43In 1822, another poem, called A Visit from Saint Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore, presented
01:49Santa as the red-suit-wearing, chubby and jovial figure who brought gifts to well-behaved
01:55children.
01:56Years later, the red-suit-wearing Santa appeared for the first time in a Thanksgiving Day parade
02:01in New York in 1924.
02:04Over time, Santa started showing up in different countries, even in India.
02:11And guess what?
02:12Indians not only had their own Santa with actor Sanjeev Kumar in 1974 film Shandar,
02:19but also had a desi version of Jingle Bells to jingle all the way.
02:28In the late 1990s, Santa made an unexpected appearance in one of the episodes of popular
02:34TV serial Shaktimaan.
02:37But here, Santa took on an unconventional role.
02:40He wasn't a jolly old man, but a villain.
02:44Unlike this in Channel B's Santa Banta sketches, Santa clad in a red suit and cap made jokes
02:49in Punjabi and made people laugh in 2008.
02:57As years passed, it became a common tradition for people to don the Santa costume for Christmas
03:02events and you could find Santa face masks everywhere you looked.
03:11But sometimes, Santa in India faced resentment from a few.
03:16In 2021, effigies of Santa Claus were burnt on Christmas Eve, allegedly by some Hindu
03:22right-wing outfits in Uttar Pradesh's Agra.
03:25They accused the mythical figure of being involved in a plan by Christian missionaries
03:29to convert people.
03:31The next year, people dressed up as Santa were beaten up, allegedly by members of a
03:35Hindu organisation in Gujarat's Ahmedabad after they accused them of luring people
03:41into religious conversion.
03:44Some were against him, while others adored him.
03:47But Christmas just wasn't the same without this jolly fellow in his red coat and white
03:52beard.