We know the name of Saint Nicholas, more rarely his story… Who is really the ancestor of Santa Claus, celebrated this Wednesday, December 6?
Saint Nicholas Day is always celebrated on December 6, this Wednesday this year! Saint Nicholas, who inspired our current Santa, actually lived! He was a bishop of Myra (southern present-day Turkey) from the beginning of the 4th century, who became a Christian saint after he was credited with performing numerous miracles. It will then be necessary to wait a very long time for Santa Claus as such to appear, a character born from a commercial initiative in the 20th century.
In the festivities of Saint Nicholas as well as at the heart of children’s imagination, Saint Nicholas forms a well-known pair with a much less pleasant accomplice, the famous Père Fouettard, whose main mission is to punish unruly children. As for celebrations, parades of floats, torchlight processions and markets enliven the streets of several regions of Eastern France and Northern Europe, sometimes for several weeks like in Nancy. Date, song, legends… Immerse yourself, thanks to this special page, behind the scenes of the world of “good Saint Nicholas”!
Like any self-respecting saint, Saint Nicholas now has a date of his own in our calendar, December 6. It is on this date that he visits homes to reward good students who deserve happy holidays. Germany began marking it with a white stone in the 10th century! Saint Nicholas Day is also a tradition in the Nordic countries. The Dutch and Germans imported his legend to the United States in the 17th century. French regions also celebrate its “coming” very early: particularly popular in the North of France, it is even more so in the East of the country. Saint Nicholas visits schoolchildren in Lorraine every December 6 and distributes candy, gingerbread and chocolate while they welcome him with song. He also parades along the streets under the bright eyes of young and old. In Nancy, for example, the Saint Nicholas celebrations traditionally last a whole weekend. And they combine XXL fireworks, a parade of floats and even the symbolic handing over of the keys to the city to the Patron Saint by the mayor himself. In short, between music, parade and market, the rites of Saint Nicholas are still celebrated every year in Lorraine, as in Nancy or in the North, in Valenciennes, and filled with songs and legends. The enigmatic ancestor of Santa Claus is still the protective patron of children, especially if they have been good. But the good Saint Nicholas is also the patron saint of sailors, prisoners, lawyers, physiotherapists and even single men (while Saint Catherine is that of single women).
To approach the great and astonishing story of Saint Nicholas, why not start with this nursery rhyme which still resonates in certain regions of France? The song of Saint Nicholas gives voice to a child who promises to be wise, “like a sheep” and to learn his lessons in order to “have candy”. This could be the slogan of the schoolchildren who chant it every December 6 (St. Nicholas Day) to welcome their patron Saint… Already, the shadow of modern Santa Claus is peeking out from behind some rather outdated stanzas. Here are the lyrics of the Saint Nicholas song according to the specialized site fete-enfants.com:
O great Saint Nicholas, Patron of schoolchildren, Bring me apples In my little basket. I will always be wise Like a little image. I will learn my lessons To have sweets.
Come, come, Saint Nicholas, Come, come, Saint Nicholas, Come, come, Saint Nicholas, and tra la la…
O great Saint Nicholas, Patron of schoolchildren Bring me toys In my little basket. I will always be wise Like a little sheep. I will learn my lessons To have sweets.
Come, come, Saint Nicholas, Come, come, Saint Nicholas, Come, come, Saint Nicholas, and tra la la…
Saint Nicholas is always welcomed with joy by schoolchildren or during his parade in the cities, but the arrival of Father Fouettard (whose story you will discover a little later in this file) is, unsurprisingly, less welcome among the children. But also sometimes with their parents: in 2014, a controversy took place in the Netherlands at the start of the annual Saint Nicholas procession… regarding the supposedly racist character of the character of Zwarte Piet, or Peter the Black (the version Dutch of Père Fouettard).
“Have you children been good?” – “Yessssss” most of the time answer the youngest people to this eternal question. Since the Middle Ages, Saint Nicholas has gone from home to home on the night of December 5 to 6 (at least that’s what the legend says) to ask children if they have been good. Two options: the brats have been and receive gifts; or they did not shine with their discipline and Father Fouettard, partner of Saint-Nicolas, gives them a correction.
If Saint Nicholas is so popular, it is because since the Middle Ages, he inherited a role: that of patron of schoolchildren. It is said that he owes it to his many miracles. And not just any ones. For example, he would have resurrected three poor schoolchildren cut into pieces by a butcher and thrown into a salt room… Said butcher will give birth to the legend of the evil Père Fouettard (read below). Another legend tells how the future “real” Santa Claus saves a man in debt from selling his three daughters as slaves to get by (a classic process in Antiquity): for three consecutive nights, the bishop of Myre throws enough money in the family home (through the window or the fireplace, versions differ) so that the father can repay his debts and provide his daughters with a dowry. Another legend says that the good Saint Nicholas saved a boat from the storm carrying a cargo of wheat for the city of Myra. Stories inspired by real Byzantine icons. Little by little, the tradition of Santa Claus will supplant that of its inspiration.
Saint Nicholas sports a recognizable look (miter on his head, crosier in his hand and ecclesiastical habit on his back), because he was a bishop in another life! This was in the 4th century, in Asia Minor – in other words, in the southwest of what is now Turkey. Victim of persecution under the reign of Diocletian, Nicolas of Myra, as he was then called, was mainly talked about after his death on December 6. He is remembered as the kind and generous protector, of the widow and the orphan.
And his past is particularly original: Nicholas of Myra was therefore born in Turkey, in a port in Anatolia, around the 3rd century AD. He became a bishop at a very young age, in a part of Asia where the Christian religion was in its infancy. Retired to an island, renamed the island of Saint-Nicolas, he then settled in Myre, the modern town of Demre, which would give him his surname. He would be particularly known in the early years for his fight against pagan cults in this Christmas period, still worshiping ancient Greek gods.
In the 16th century, Saint Nicholas suffered banishment in a large part of Europe, due to Protestant reform. But the Dutch keep the tradition alive, and will even, as mentioned above, import it to the other side of the Atlantic. Normal: they are among the first to colonize America, where they do not forget to bring their “Sinterklass” (Saint Nicholas in Dutch). Enough to give Santa Claus (the American “Santa Claus”) a little later. American Christians appropriate the legend and compare, in the modern version of the feast of Saint Nicholas, the coming of Santa Claus to the birth of Little Jesus. So he will be making his rounds on December 24th! This updating will not prevent other Christians from remaining faithful to Saint Nicholas. The children of Lorraine know something about it. They won a second Christmas…
Father Fouettard can be seen as the dark double of Saint Nicholas. And for good reason: he is there to punish naughty children during the year. It owes its existence in the lives of schoolchildren to an invention by tutors in the 18th century to keep the kids quiet. Others point to Berwartstein Castle, in Germany, as the haunt of the evil bogeyman-like visitor: a historical figure, Lord Hans Von Trotha, is said to have occupied it between 1480 and 1503. Built on top of a rock in bordering the Palatine Forest, it was considered impregnable with its underground tunnels connected to the keep. A precise historical origin also explains the presence of Father Fouettard as a scarecrow for children: in the 16th century, in the midst of the siege of Metz by the troops of Charles V, the inhabitants of the besieged city made fun of the image of the emperor, burning a mannequin in his likeness. And the latter is nicknamed “Father Fouettard”. According to the children’s site Gaminsdulux.fr, in Luxembourg, Father Fouettard originally had “rudden” in his bag, “small flexible wooden sticks, weeping willow style, for spanking children.” Many Christmas songs also refer to the sinister character.
In Eastern France, Saint Nicholas is celebrated every December 6. The festival dates back to the 13th century. In 2018, the Saint-Nicolas celebrations in Nancy were more particularly listed in the French Inventory of Cultural and Intangible Heritage, “from their first appearance in committee”, specified the Ministry of Culture. In this city in eastern France, celebrations normally last 45 days, peaking on the first weekend of December, and are hosted by street arts companies. Along with the Strasbourg Christmas market, the Saint-Nicolas celebrations in Nancy are the other highlight of winter in the East of France: on the menu more precisely, we find the traditional Saint-Nicolas parade , musical street entertainment, and the Patron Saint’s tour of schoolchildren and Lorraine residents in schools. More generally in the East, children come home from school and enjoy a cake in the shape of a man and made of brioche or kugelhopf dough, the männele, dipped in hot chocolate. Often, traders distribute cakes and sweets for free and adults gather around a glass of mulled wine.
