{"id":1098,"date":"2008-12-17T22:52:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-17T22:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2008-12-17T22:52:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-17T22:52:00","slug":"yes-hypatia-there-is-a-santa-claus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1098","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Hypatia, There is a Santa Claus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This fellow — Santa Claus, Father Christmas — has joined the lineup of graven images on our polytheistic\/animistic mantel. That’s Hermes’ foot at the far left, followed by an ossuary jar of sharp-shinned hawk <\/a>bones, and Hekate on the right.<\/p>\n

We all know that Santa’s name derives from the Dutch form<\/a> of St. Nicholas, but what need have we Pagans of a saint whose titles include “Defender of Orthodoxy” (versus the Arian Christians<\/a>) and whose biographers proudly proclaim that he destroyed Pagan temples<\/a>. So forget that part.<\/p>\n

The connection with Odin<\/a> is fascinating but fragile. Others go off on different tangents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the scripture states<\/a>, “He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus.”<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I really have no problem with calling this time of year “Christmas” in casual conversation. When I was in my twenties, I rigorously drew a line and would only say “Yule.” Now I am more casual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This fellow — Santa Claus, Father Christmas — has joined the lineup of graven images on our polytheistic\/animistic mantel. That’s Hermes’ foot at the far left, followed by an ossuary jar of sharp-shinned hawk bones, and Hekate on the right. We all know that Santa’s name derives from the Dutch form of St. Nicholas, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[10,68,24,40,43],"class_list":["post-1098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-american-religion","tag-animism","tag-christianity","tag-polytheism","tag-yule"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-hI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7671,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7671","url_meta":{"origin":1098,"position":0},"title":"The Complicated History of Santa Claus and American Christmas","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Ah, Christmas traditions. So complicated, so misunderstood. Take Santa Claus, American version. Not a survival of colonial New Amsterdam except in a literary sense, he was pretty well invented by the prolific writer Washington Irving in the early 19th century. And he was connected with Dec. 6th, St. Nicholas' Day,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Yule\"","block_context":{"text":"Yule","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=yule"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12059,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12059","url_meta":{"origin":1098,"position":1},"title":"Christmas, When the Veil is Thin","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"In December (yeah, this is late) I was tapped by a public library in Oregon to give an hour's Zoom lecture on the \"Pagan origins of Christmas.\" I did it, but that format is still pretty weird. How many people are watching? Three? Thirty? Three hundred? And are they awake?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ancestors\"","block_context":{"text":"ancestors","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ancestors"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Christmas-eve-lantern-1-238x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10886,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10886","url_meta":{"origin":1098,"position":2},"title":"Catholic Church Struggles with De Facto Polytheism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This is an old story, but it erupts in new forms. Polytheistic-style devotion keeps irrupting in the Roman Catholic Church, much to the concern of the hierarchs. From The Catholic Herald (UK): \"The Church\u2019s life-and-death struggle with Santa Muerte: The Church in the Americas is sounding the alarm over a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Catholicism\"","block_context":{"text":"Catholicism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=catholicism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/santa-Muerte.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12867,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12867","url_meta":{"origin":1098,"position":3},"title":"“Cracow Monsters” Is Just “Weak Horror,” Says Polish Professor","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Cracow Monsters is a Netflix series about \"a young woman haunted by her past [who] joins a mysterious professor and his group of gifted students who investigate paranormal activity \u2014 and fight demons.\" Can you say \"TV trope\"?\u00a0 I knew you could. Maybe \"Cool teacher\" or possibly \"More than just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/cracow-monsters-150x84.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1558,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1558","url_meta":{"origin":1098,"position":4},"title":"Vampires of Santa Fe","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A week ago I walked through a snow squall on Cathedral Place in the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and thought, \"Santa Fe needs a vampire novel.\" I had in mind something like Anne Rice meets Jake Page meets Michael McGarrity. It turns out that a Santa Fe-based writer,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"Corn plant grill work in Acequia Madre neighborhood, Santa Fe, New Mexico","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/colorpermutation-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9563,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9563","url_meta":{"origin":1098,"position":5},"title":"The “Salem-Santa Fe” Mystery Solved","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A month ago I blogged how astonished M. and I were to see that Kakawa, the Santa Fe-based chocolate house, was about to open a new store in Salem, Mass. Imagine our surprise to see this storefront on Essex Street next to the [Peabody-Essex] museum: Kakawa is coming! Sure, I\u2019d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"chocolate\"","block_context":{"text":"chocolate","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=chocolate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/kakawa-santa-fe.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/kakawa-santa-fe.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/kakawa-santa-fe.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}