Today is St. Nicholas Day. This is the story about St. Nicholas that has morphed into our custom of Santa Claus:
“One story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value—a . The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver.”
Did you find a toy in your shoes this morning?
Me neither. Maybe I should have left hay and carrots in them.
(Photos, drawing and quote for this entry found at the St. Nicholas Center , which has lots of other pictures and stories about St. Nick. Drawing of St. Nicholas and the three poor girls by Elisabeth Jvanovsky.)
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