December 15, 2025 • 28 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
He first thing that I want to speak to you
guys about is the paganization of Santa Claus. And who
is the number one culprit. Well, if you ask me,
(00:26):
I would say it's actually Protestantism. So I was in
preparation for today because I've done other streams on Santa Claus.
But I wanted to think of what is a new
angle that I could present to people about Santa Claus,
about Saint Nicholas. And we've talked, as I said, about
shaman Clause about uh, you know, various pagan elements and
(00:47):
Odin and and you know Father Christmas and center Clause
and all this different stuff, but I've never specifically stated
who is responsible for the fact that are the celebration
of Saint Nicholas. A real historic person, historic person that
is associated with multiple miracles, was impressed Emperor Constantine during
(01:12):
this lifetime lived at such an influential period where he
lived during the Diocletian Persecution and then after Constantine's Edict
of Milan. He spanned both those periods. How did he
become this red and white jolly figure writing Santa Claus
(01:34):
is in a sled through the night, gifting children presence
through the chimney, And honestly, I would argue it's because
of Protestantism. It's because of Protestantism. There's a myth that
goes around that Christmas is a pagan holiday, right, Christmas
is a pagan holiday. You know, don't you know about
(01:56):
Soul and Victis. Well, that's interesting you bring up so
Victis because Solin Victis. The cult of Solen Victis in
which they celebrated on December twenty fifth, actually occurred multiple
decades after the celebration of Christmas was fully submitted within
the Christian world. Essentially by the third century. Christmas was
(02:19):
already fully submitted, especially by the fourth century, which is
interesting because Saint Nicholas of Myra he spans the end
of the third century and into the beginning of the
fourth century. Right, he dies in three forty three. He's
born in two seventy, so it's very interesting that he
exists during this period. But especially once you get to
(02:41):
the end of the fourth century, Christmas as a celebration
of christ is fully established. Now most de writers will say, yeah,
but don't you know, don't you know that December twenty
fifth is the winter solstice? Right? The light died, the
sun dies for three days, and then it moves again
(03:03):
on the twenty fifth, and that the Christians were just
using the sun as a symbolic appropriation regarding the birth
of Christ. And actually that's not the case. Actually, during
that time, December twenty fifth was on the Julian calendar,
which today would be January seventh. So the Julian calendar
(03:26):
was not exact regarding the solstice and the equinoxes. The
Gregorian calendar, the calendar reforms fully established that right. And
for some of us orthodox we are on the Western calendar,
the Gregorian calendar. Most of the Slavic churches are on
the Julian calendar, the older calendar. And so this calendar
(03:49):
issue highlights that, No, the Christians did not steal December
twenty fifth from the Pagans. The Christians calculated from the
annunciation of Crime in March twenty fifth. If you fast
forward nine months, that puts you at December twenty fifth.
It had nothing to do with the solstices. Obviously, after
(04:11):
the Gregorian reforms and when the celebration of Christmas aligned
more directly with the winter solstice. Yeah, Christians incorporated the
symbolism because it then corresponded with the celebration that they
themselves were participating in regarding the Nativity. But it didn't
go the other way around. And I see this. I
even see this from Protestants, right. You don't see it
(04:33):
from Catholics as much because again not a fan of
the papacy, but they are at least historically rooted to
a better degree than Protestant. But you get these weird
non denominational Christians that are talking about how Christmas is
pagan You put you know, we don't put up Christmas.
What are you talking about? Do you know where any
of this stuff comes from? Are you familiar with the
(04:54):
traditions during the medieval period, because what we see today
as Santa Claus is a concoction of Protestant Christians reforming
the figure of Saint Nicholas because they hated the veneration
of saints so much, and so the irony, the irony
of all this is when you read Saint Nicholas the
(05:18):
Wonder Worker, you can see how much Saint Nicholas contributed
the into the destruction of paganism during his time establishing
and paving the way for a truly Christian civilization. Christian culture,
one that was actually endorsed and backed by the Roman Empire.
(05:40):
And how ironic, how ironic that as time moves by
after the Reformation, and certainly once you get into the
nineteenth century the eighteen hundreds, Saint Nicholas, who destroyed the Pagans,
who gave gifts to the children, protected the innocence, and
the travelers, gets repaganized. They then begin to develop and
(06:05):
add aspects of Odin and aspects of the mythology of
the Norse and some of the Northern European states, and
incorporate that around the figure of Saint Nicholas, but divorcing
him from his sainthood. And so how do we get
a paganized form of Saint Nicholas because of the Protestants
(06:27):
and the irony. The irony, because, as I always say, Protestantism,
it was a project doomed to fail from its inception,
and because of it, we now live in a commodified
secular celebration of Christmas where you can't even say Mary
Christmas anymore. It's happy Holidays. It's happy holidays, guys. No,
(06:50):
I'm a Christmas Christian supremacist, so I only say Mary
Christmas and anybody who says Happy Holidays, I go out
of my way to say Mary Christmas too. And if
I see that you have a yamaka on or your
head is wrapped in a turban, I will specifically say
Mery Christmas to you as well. So the paganization of
(07:12):
Saint Nicholas is really totally at the hands of the Protestants,
and I want to walk you through this, and I
just want to debunk some of this nonsense that actually
comes out of the mouths of Protestants who they themselves
wasn't for the Reformation, we would still have a truly
Christian Christmas that wasn't then filled with Rudolph the Red
Nose Reindeer and all this other stuff. And so Saint
(07:35):
Nicholas has moved from the Orthodox bishop who we're going
to be discussing today to Protestant folklore. And then in
the American context, with the establishment of New Amsterdam, right
the New Netherlands, which is essentially the state of New York. Right,
New Amsterdam was part of the Dutch West Indies colony,
(07:56):
landed somewhere around Manhattan, and it is essentially the basis
and the building of New York. New York City. It
is the Dutch that we're one of the only Protestant
North Christians that held onto the resemblance of anything that
was still Sat Nicholas with Center Claus, and Center Claus
(08:16):
still had a miter hat still had sort of bishop
regalia on. So there was still the accouterments of Christianity
regarding Saint Nicholas. But once American culture, and that's where
in the nineteenth century, once we get to Washington, Irving
and Thomas Nast and the developed in Coca Cola, all
(08:39):
this stuff comes together by the end of the nineteen hundreds,
by the end of the nineteenth century, in the beginning
of the nineteen hundreds of twentieth century, we have the
fully formed secular, commodified toy company conspiracy amalgamation of modern
day sand the clause and how much does he represent Christ?
(09:02):
How much does the modern secular Santa Claus ever mention
Jesus Christ. Of course he doesn't. And so Christian origins
here theological celebration of the incarnation fully established by the
fourth century. As I highlighted Saint Nicholas of Myra, who
were going to be focusing on for the rest of
this stream. Fourth century Orthodox Bishop, miracle worker, protector of
(09:23):
the poor and children. His feast day is tomorrow, December sixth,
So that's one of the reasons. Again major thank you
to John for sponsoring the stream, but I wanted to
get this stream done today so that people could share
this stream on Saint Nicholas tomorrow, which is his feast day.
And so at this stage the tradition is fully Christian,
(09:45):
so post Saint Nicholas, during the life of Saint but
it's definitely after the life of Saint Nicholas from the
fourth century onward, Christmas is fully Christian and actually went
out of its way to take away any of the
pagan components. In fact, as I said, the fact that
the Church went out of its way to rid itself
of any paganism of the Old World the first major shift. Now,
(10:09):
there was kind of elements of some of the myths
that get going in the medieval period in Western Europe,
but it pretty much maintains itself all the way through
the medieval period up into we get to the post
Reformation Northern European period. And so this is who to
blame for the secularization of Saint Nicholas. It's the Protestants.
(10:34):
Protestant Reformers rejected devotion to saints. Saint Nicholas's role in
Christmas was suppressed. Protestants discouraged anybody from celebrating Saint Nicholas.
And then to fill the gap. Then, because they didn't
want Saint veneration, folk cultures reinserted local winter gift givers.
(10:55):
In Germany, you got Chris Kendall or Ruby, say is
Chris kring In England you get Father Christmas. In the
Low countries, you know, the Netherlands, you get center Clause
Santa Claus. So you see how Chris Kringle, Santa Claus,
Saint Nick, How they're all coming together as identifiers of
(11:15):
the same figure. Center Clause a key transitional figure still
based on Saint Nicholas. Bishops, robes, minor hat arrived by
ship from Spain, visited children, judged behavior, accompanied by helpers
based on local folklore. This is the moment folk motifs
began blending with a Christian saint in the Protestant sphere.
(11:39):
Now you get to the American reinvention. New York's literary class.
Dutch immigrants brought Center Claus to New Amsterdam. American writers
then reimagined him into a cultural mascot Washington Irving. In
eighteen oh nine, in A History of New York, he
transformed center Claus into a humorous, pipe smoking Dutch figure
(12:02):
writing in a flying wagon. First appearance of a magical
gift bringer disconnected from the liturgical context of the whole thing.
So it's a shift from bishop to folkloric jolly gift giver.
And then we have Clement Clark Moore. In eighteen twenty
(12:22):
three he wrote the famous poem Twas the Night Before
Christmas a visit from Saint Nicholas, he introduced the concept
of reindeers. The chimney is the delivery system Christmas Eve
as the primary focus on the gift giving and cheerful
elfin character not a bishop. Saint Nicholas now leaves Christian
(12:45):
history behind and becomes a mythic fantasy figure. And this
just gets reinforced about thirty years later by Thomas Nast,
political cartoonist who drew Santa for Harper's Weekly standarized Santa's
North Pole residence, toy workshop, ledger of Natti, and nice
roton body, white beard fur lined clothing. A fully secular
(13:11):
Northern myth rooted in the Victorian imagination. So some of
these early depictions that Thomas Knats put forth really tintillated
the Victorian mind. And they love the aesthetic, they love
the imagery of this new Santa Claus that again wasn't
(13:33):
tainted by the history of Christianity and all this other stuff.
It was a new sort of cultural myth, and the
Victorian imagination absolutely ate it up. But notice no theological
role remains for who Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, Chris Kringle is.
And then, of course the final stage is the commercialization
(13:53):
of Santa Claus, Coca Cola and twentieth century advertising. You
get Hadden sun Blooms. We've talked about him in a
previous stream, I think last year in nineteen thirty one. Onward,
he consolidated the red suit from the bishop's vestments, Vietna's art, warm, jovial,
universal Santa image became the global commercial mascot for consumer Christmas,
(14:15):
and the Saints' legacy is absorbed into brand marketing and
seasonal consumption from that point forward. And so, you know,
one of the things that I wanted to also address
is this idea that Santa Claus was actually a shaman,
and I am embarrassed to say at one point I
actually believe this to be the case. I remember probably roughly,
(14:39):
let's see twenty sixteen. Twenty sixteen, still deeply engrossed into
the New Age, a psychonot, believing psychedelics were like the
leading edge of religious experience, heard Terrence mckinna talk about
how Santa Claus is actually an origin tied with Siberian shamanism.
(15:02):
I thought, what, I've never heard this before. And his
argument then goes on to elaborate that he believed because
there is evidence of a variety. Not again, it's not all,
but there are some Siberian communities that engage in amitita
muscaria mushroom use amitita muscaria being the red and white mushroom.
(15:24):
You know, if anybody played Super Mario, know who Toad is.
You know, the red and white mushroom is sort of
iconic and if you don't dry it, it can actually
kill you. And so Terence McKinnon put forth this idea
that is very popular today still that Santa Claus is
actually not Christian at all. You know. He argued that, yeah,
(15:47):
Saint Nicholas really has nothing to do with modern Santa Claus.
What modern Santa Claus is is the repackaging of ancient shamanism.
The idea here is that these Aminita muscaria cults, they
would find the amitie muscaria mushroom. And where did you
find those at You would find them under coniferous trees. Okay,
so then there's the Christmas tree. This is for Terence McKenna.
(16:09):
What do you do with the mushrooms? Once you find them,
you put them on the tree in the sun so
they can dry, so you can consume them. This is
what he argued is the origin of the ornaments on
Christmas trees. Then he talks about how reindeer, which is
a fact, are one of the few animal species which
is known to eat aminitamuscaria mushrooms, and that Siberian shamans
(16:32):
would drink the urine of these reindeers because it has
already been filtered of toxins through the reindeer, that it's
actually less toxic, and that they can get more high
without the toxins by drinking reindeer urine. And so he's
arguing this is the origin of the flying reindeers, that elves.
Elves are part of the d MT experience. Right when
(16:55):
you get into altered psychoonatic space, you encounter these little
entities are arguing, well, actually, what these entities are are
elves that are part of this aminidomuscary experience, and that
Christmas then is the rebirth ceremony connected to mushroom ecstasy,
and that the Christmas Tree is Yigdrasil for those of
you familiar, like the cosmic world tree, the axis of
(17:18):
the axis mundy, the pillar that unites both Middle Earth
with the heavens and with the lower world. Right, this
is something that shamanism always talked about, is the universal Tree. Well,
I wanted to also completely debunk this while we're at
it right now, because there's actually no evidence for this
(17:38):
at all. It's a very compelling narrative, the symbols are
very compelling, but if you actually dive into this stuff,
it's totally achronistic, Like it doesn't line up chronologically because
the whole tradition is established by Christians in the Mediterranean,
(17:59):
who have no no connection to Siberian shamanism, who have
no connection to reindeer or Aminium ascaria mushrooms, and so
all this stuff is sort of a later repackaging or
a reinterpretation of that Americanized secular Christmas myth of modern
day Santa Claus. And so I just want to show
(18:21):
you guys how this stuff is actually fallacious and you
don't even need to worry about it. But once you
see it, you'd be like, oh, oh, okay, I see
why he did that, But it didn't make any sense. So,
for example, there is no evidence Santa originated from any
sort of Siberian myth. He arguabill, Well, Santa's from the
North Pole, it makes sense. Then Santa's actually from Siberian myth.
(18:41):
There's actually no evidence. Again, he's derived from Saint Nicholas
an Asia minor. His cult spread from Byzantium to Italy
to Western Europe. Siberian shamans had zero contact with early
Christian feast development. There is no historical bridge between the
Merian bishop of Saint Nicholas and Siberian mushroom rituals. Second
(19:03):
Aminitamiscaria was not associated with Christmas in Christian Europe. Mushroom
shamanism is documented only in northern Siberian tribes. Saint Nicholas
devotion flourished first in the Mediterranean Christian societies, where amanita
does not even grow predominantly, so there's no cultural transmission.
McKenna actually reverses what I argue. He's reversing. The timeline
(19:26):
Christmas is fully attested to by three point thirty six
AD in Rome, Saint Nicholas already the gift giver, fully
established by the sixth century, Santa Claus mythology fully developed
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as we've already talked
about the paganization done by Protestants. Meanwhile, for Terrence McKenna,
(19:47):
the first academic mention of Syrian mushroom practices isn't until
the seventeenth century, the eighteenth centuries, and McKenna's hypothesis is
really a late twentieth century invention. You cannot use modern
anthropological observation to invent an ancient origin. It doesn't exist.
What about the flying reindeer, It's because they're high on mushrooms, right,
(20:10):
And actually the first appearance of flying reindeer doesn't even
occur until eighteen twenty three and a visit from Saint Nicholas.
It was the night before Christmas. No medieval European artwork, ever,
depicts Santa with reindeer, so clearly that's not the origins
and the way that it was celebrated at all. Reindeer
do eat Amanita, but the fact was unknown when the
(20:31):
myth was created. What about the red and white suit,
he argues, it's a mushroom symbol. Well one, and I
listened to I remember in lectures that he would give,
you'd say, you know, it has nothing to do with Christianity.
Does he even know what the color of the vestments
are during the Nativity. It's red for many of our
(20:53):
our jurisdictions. But if not, it's white. Vestments are white.
So the vestments in the Christian Church when celebrating Christmas
is either red or white. Maybe that's where the colors
come from, again derived from the bishop's red vestments, later
standardized by Thomas Nast and Coca Cola advertising. But just
(21:17):
because there's similar colors, it's a coincidence, not a genealogy.
And oh what the heck happened here? The world Tree
Elves toy workshop are Victorian folklore. Elves appear due to
the nineteenth century European fairy tales. The tree does not
equal cosmic shamanism, and so on and so forth, and so,
(21:41):
just to put the nail in the coffin of anybody
trying to argue that Christmas is a pagan holiday, I
want to tell you why do we celebrate on December
twenty fifth. It was chosen before the solstice mismatch existed.
So when Christians identified December twenty fifth as the date
(22:01):
for the Nativity in the second to third centuries, they
were using the Roman civil calendar of that time, what
we now call the Julian calendar. Okay, and so in
the Julian calendar of the Early Church, December twenty fifth
was nine months after the annunciation. I probably should spell
that right. The feast was tied to the theological symbolism
(22:23):
of the incarnation, not the astrological or astronomical position of
the sun as Pagans understood it. So key theological reasoning
behind December twenty fifth, as we already said, it has
to do with nine months after the point in which
Christ was conceived. And so this logic predates any Solen
(22:44):
Victis connection because Solen Victis, the cult of Solen Victis
comes decades after the establishment of Christmas. At the date
of December twenty fifth. The date began as a symbol
of salvation history, not seasonal mythology regards the movement of
the sun. This just talks about a little bit of
(23:04):
the calendar differences. But was the solstice the real reason
for why Christian shows December twenty fifth. No, Now we
did later embrace the symbolism. But my point with the
different calendars is that the Julian calendar December twenty fifth
does not line up exactly on the winter solstice. That
(23:25):
was later corrected in the Gregorian calendar. Now I'm not
arguing which one's better or not, but I'm just saying,
so even the idea when people say, well, do you
know Christians, they only they celebrate Christ's birth on December
twenty fifth because Price is the sun. He's the sun.
He's the sun in the sky, and it dies for
three days and then it moves up one more it's reborn,
(23:47):
and that's why they do. Do you do know? Right
that on the Julian calendar, December twenty fifth didn't didn't
line up exactly with the winter solstice, so that really
had nothing to do with it. But they did corporated
once once the Gregorian calendar came out and they fixed
it and it did align with the winter solstice. Yeah,
christ as the true light entering the dark world. You know,
(24:10):
there's a lot of symbolism that can be gleaned from that.
This is what I call baptized symbolism, not pagan inheritance.
So who copied who exactly? Here's the historical sequence. Christians
identify March twenty fifth, nine months later December twenty fifth,
that is fully established by the years twenty to two
fifty A d Rome celebrates Nativity liturgically three point thirty
(24:35):
six AD. Aurelian promotes sol Invictis on December twenty fifth,
two seventy four AD, so at least two decades at
the latest date in which Christians had already identified the
date for Christmas. So yeah, overlaps. But Christian calculations are older,
and the solstice alignment was secondary theological, not a borrowed
(24:59):
pagan found Pagan festivals borrowed from Christians, actually not the
other way around. So when Emperor a really An established
soul in Victis on December twenty fifth, he was doing
so because he wanted to slow down and co opt
Christian symbolism to resist Christian growth. Christiane did not adopt
(25:22):
the Pagan feast. Paganism adopted the Christian feast to fight
its expansion. Well, don't you know that Mythross Mythros was
just like Jesus. Really, yeah, Mythros was also he was
born on December twenty fifth. What in the Roman called
mythross birth was not a theme. There is no ancient
(25:44):
tax referring to Mithros birth on December twenty fifth. Mythrus
emerges from a rock, not from a mother. Mithraic worship
focused on initiation, rights, meals, sacrifice, symbolism, cosmic imagery, bull slaying,
No birth celebration on December twenty fifth, zero connection. What
about other claims? You know, certain neo pagan and Internet
(26:04):
sources site Attis, Horus and Osiris, Dionysius, Tamus Adonis. But
these claims are anachronistic and unsupported by ancient sources. For example,
Dionysius has festivals throughout the year, none specifically on December
twenty fifth. Horace had no set birthday tied to a
(26:26):
solstice date. Adonus feasts were in spring, connected to vegetation. Myths.
Saturnalia often wrongly connective to Christmas ended on December twenty third.
None of these gods have a birth on December twenty fifth,
and antiquity, So why has this myth persisted well? Eighteenth
through twentieth century anti Christian polemicists began claiming Christians stole
(26:50):
December twenty fifth from Pagans, but rigorous modern scholarship has
actually reversed this claim. Christians already celebrated December twenty fifth
for biblical theological reasons, and later Pagans and folklore writers
retro actively tried to draw connections. So when anybody wants
to tell you Christmas is a pagan holiday, tell them, no,
(27:15):
it's not a pagan holiday. The only thing pagan about
Christmas is what the It's what the Protestants did due
to their rejection of Saint Veneration and then allowing for
a new amalgamation of Saint Nicholas with basically Northern European
folklore and myths to create some type of figure that
(27:36):
would allow them to still have a winter gift giver
without ever saying the name Saint Nicholas. That's how we
get it. And so if it wasn't for the Protestants,
we wouldn't have a repaganization of Christmas. If anything, Christmas
is the emancipation of Christianity from the ancient pagan world.
(27:57):
But now Christmas, if you look at it today, with
the happy Holidays and the consumerism and the secularism, I
would argue, in the modern myth of Santa Claus, it's
because Protestants and the Protestant Reformation, Santa Claus has been repaganized.
And what we need to do as Orthodox Christians is
(28:17):
re christianize Santa Claus.
He first thing that I want to speak to you
guys about is the paganization of Santa Claus. And who
is the number one culprit. Well, if you ask me,
(00:26):
I would say it's actually Protestantism. So I was in
preparation for today because I've done other streams on Santa Claus.
But I wanted to think of what is a new
angle that I could present to people about Santa Claus,
about Saint Nicholas. And we've talked, as I said, about
shaman Clause about uh, you know, various pagan elements and
(00:47):
Odin and and you know Father Christmas and center Clause
and all this different stuff, but I've never specifically stated
who is responsible for the fact that are the celebration
of Saint Nicholas. A real historic person, historic person that
is associated with multiple miracles, was impressed Emperor Constantine during
(01:12):
this lifetime lived at such an influential period where he
lived during the Diocletian Persecution and then after Constantine's Edict
of Milan. He spanned both those periods. How did he
become this red and white jolly figure writing Santa Claus
(01:34):
is in a sled through the night, gifting children presence
through the chimney, And honestly, I would argue it's because
of Protestantism. It's because of Protestantism. There's a myth that
goes around that Christmas is a pagan holiday, right, Christmas
is a pagan holiday. You know, don't you know about
(01:56):
Soul and Victis. Well, that's interesting you bring up so
Victis because Solin Victis. The cult of Solen Victis in
which they celebrated on December twenty fifth, actually occurred multiple
decades after the celebration of Christmas was fully submitted within
the Christian world. Essentially by the third century. Christmas was
(02:19):
already fully submitted, especially by the fourth century, which is
interesting because Saint Nicholas of Myra he spans the end
of the third century and into the beginning of the
fourth century. Right, he dies in three forty three. He's
born in two seventy, so it's very interesting that he
exists during this period. But especially once you get to
(02:41):
the end of the fourth century, Christmas as a celebration
of christ is fully established. Now most de writers will say, yeah,
but don't you know, don't you know that December twenty
fifth is the winter solstice? Right? The light died, the
sun dies for three days, and then it moves again
(03:03):
on the twenty fifth, and that the Christians were just
using the sun as a symbolic appropriation regarding the birth
of Christ. And actually that's not the case. Actually, during
that time, December twenty fifth was on the Julian calendar,
which today would be January seventh. So the Julian calendar
(03:26):
was not exact regarding the solstice and the equinoxes. The
Gregorian calendar, the calendar reforms fully established that right. And
for some of us orthodox we are on the Western calendar,
the Gregorian calendar. Most of the Slavic churches are on
the Julian calendar, the older calendar. And so this calendar
(03:49):
issue highlights that, No, the Christians did not steal December
twenty fifth from the Pagans. The Christians calculated from the
annunciation of Crime in March twenty fifth. If you fast
forward nine months, that puts you at December twenty fifth.
It had nothing to do with the solstices. Obviously, after
(04:11):
the Gregorian reforms and when the celebration of Christmas aligned
more directly with the winter solstice. Yeah, Christians incorporated the
symbolism because it then corresponded with the celebration that they
themselves were participating in regarding the Nativity. But it didn't
go the other way around. And I see this. I
even see this from Protestants, right. You don't see it
(04:33):
from Catholics as much because again not a fan of
the papacy, but they are at least historically rooted to
a better degree than Protestant. But you get these weird
non denominational Christians that are talking about how Christmas is
pagan You put you know, we don't put up Christmas.
What are you talking about? Do you know where any
of this stuff comes from? Are you familiar with the
(04:54):
traditions during the medieval period, because what we see today
as Santa Claus is a concoction of Protestant Christians reforming
the figure of Saint Nicholas because they hated the veneration
of saints so much, and so the irony, the irony
of all this is when you read Saint Nicholas the
(05:18):
Wonder Worker, you can see how much Saint Nicholas contributed
the into the destruction of paganism during his time establishing
and paving the way for a truly Christian civilization. Christian culture,
one that was actually endorsed and backed by the Roman Empire.
(05:40):
And how ironic, how ironic that as time moves by
after the Reformation, and certainly once you get into the
nineteenth century the eighteen hundreds, Saint Nicholas, who destroyed the Pagans,
who gave gifts to the children, protected the innocence, and
the travelers, gets repaganized. They then begin to develop and
(06:05):
add aspects of Odin and aspects of the mythology of
the Norse and some of the Northern European states, and
incorporate that around the figure of Saint Nicholas, but divorcing
him from his sainthood. And so how do we get
a paganized form of Saint Nicholas because of the Protestants
(06:27):
and the irony. The irony, because, as I always say, Protestantism,
it was a project doomed to fail from its inception,
and because of it, we now live in a commodified
secular celebration of Christmas where you can't even say Mary
Christmas anymore. It's happy Holidays. It's happy holidays, guys. No,
(06:50):
I'm a Christmas Christian supremacist, so I only say Mary
Christmas and anybody who says Happy Holidays, I go out
of my way to say Mary Christmas too. And if
I see that you have a yamaka on or your
head is wrapped in a turban, I will specifically say
Mery Christmas to you as well. So the paganization of
(07:12):
Saint Nicholas is really totally at the hands of the Protestants,
and I want to walk you through this, and I
just want to debunk some of this nonsense that actually
comes out of the mouths of Protestants who they themselves
wasn't for the Reformation, we would still have a truly
Christian Christmas that wasn't then filled with Rudolph the Red
Nose Reindeer and all this other stuff. And so Saint
(07:35):
Nicholas has moved from the Orthodox bishop who we're going
to be discussing today to Protestant folklore. And then in
the American context, with the establishment of New Amsterdam, right
the New Netherlands, which is essentially the state of New York. Right,
New Amsterdam was part of the Dutch West Indies colony,
(07:56):
landed somewhere around Manhattan, and it is essentially the basis
and the building of New York. New York City. It
is the Dutch that we're one of the only Protestant
North Christians that held onto the resemblance of anything that
was still Sat Nicholas with Center Claus, and Center Claus
(08:16):
still had a miter hat still had sort of bishop
regalia on. So there was still the accouterments of Christianity
regarding Saint Nicholas. But once American culture, and that's where
in the nineteenth century, once we get to Washington, Irving
and Thomas Nast and the developed in Coca Cola, all
(08:39):
this stuff comes together by the end of the nineteen hundreds,
by the end of the nineteenth century, in the beginning
of the nineteen hundreds of twentieth century, we have the
fully formed secular, commodified toy company conspiracy amalgamation of modern
day sand the clause and how much does he represent Christ?
(09:02):
How much does the modern secular Santa Claus ever mention
Jesus Christ. Of course he doesn't. And so Christian origins
here theological celebration of the incarnation fully established by the
fourth century. As I highlighted Saint Nicholas of Myra, who
were going to be focusing on for the rest of
this stream. Fourth century Orthodox Bishop, miracle worker, protector of
(09:23):
the poor and children. His feast day is tomorrow, December sixth,
So that's one of the reasons. Again major thank you
to John for sponsoring the stream, but I wanted to
get this stream done today so that people could share
this stream on Saint Nicholas tomorrow, which is his feast day.
And so at this stage the tradition is fully Christian,
(09:45):
so post Saint Nicholas, during the life of Saint but
it's definitely after the life of Saint Nicholas from the
fourth century onward, Christmas is fully Christian and actually went
out of its way to take away any of the
pagan components. In fact, as I said, the fact that
the Church went out of its way to rid itself
of any paganism of the Old World the first major shift. Now,
(10:09):
there was kind of elements of some of the myths
that get going in the medieval period in Western Europe,
but it pretty much maintains itself all the way through
the medieval period up into we get to the post
Reformation Northern European period. And so this is who to
blame for the secularization of Saint Nicholas. It's the Protestants.
(10:34):
Protestant Reformers rejected devotion to saints. Saint Nicholas's role in
Christmas was suppressed. Protestants discouraged anybody from celebrating Saint Nicholas.
And then to fill the gap. Then, because they didn't
want Saint veneration, folk cultures reinserted local winter gift givers.
(10:55):
In Germany, you got Chris Kendall or Ruby, say is
Chris kring In England you get Father Christmas. In the
Low countries, you know, the Netherlands, you get center Clause
Santa Claus. So you see how Chris Kringle, Santa Claus,
Saint Nick, How they're all coming together as identifiers of
(11:15):
the same figure. Center Clause a key transitional figure still
based on Saint Nicholas. Bishops, robes, minor hat arrived by
ship from Spain, visited children, judged behavior, accompanied by helpers
based on local folklore. This is the moment folk motifs
began blending with a Christian saint in the Protestant sphere.
(11:39):
Now you get to the American reinvention. New York's literary class.
Dutch immigrants brought Center Claus to New Amsterdam. American writers
then reimagined him into a cultural mascot Washington Irving. In
eighteen oh nine, in A History of New York, he
transformed center Claus into a humorous, pipe smoking Dutch figure
(12:02):
writing in a flying wagon. First appearance of a magical
gift bringer disconnected from the liturgical context of the whole thing.
So it's a shift from bishop to folkloric jolly gift giver.
And then we have Clement Clark Moore. In eighteen twenty
(12:22):
three he wrote the famous poem Twas the Night Before
Christmas a visit from Saint Nicholas, he introduced the concept
of reindeers. The chimney is the delivery system Christmas Eve
as the primary focus on the gift giving and cheerful
elfin character not a bishop. Saint Nicholas now leaves Christian
(12:45):
history behind and becomes a mythic fantasy figure. And this
just gets reinforced about thirty years later by Thomas Nast,
political cartoonist who drew Santa for Harper's Weekly standarized Santa's
North Pole residence, toy workshop, ledger of Natti, and nice
roton body, white beard fur lined clothing. A fully secular
(13:11):
Northern myth rooted in the Victorian imagination. So some of
these early depictions that Thomas Knats put forth really tintillated
the Victorian mind. And they love the aesthetic, they love
the imagery of this new Santa Claus that again wasn't
(13:33):
tainted by the history of Christianity and all this other stuff.
It was a new sort of cultural myth, and the
Victorian imagination absolutely ate it up. But notice no theological
role remains for who Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, Chris Kringle is.
And then, of course the final stage is the commercialization
(13:53):
of Santa Claus, Coca Cola and twentieth century advertising. You
get Hadden sun Blooms. We've talked about him in a
previous stream, I think last year in nineteen thirty one. Onward,
he consolidated the red suit from the bishop's vestments, Vietna's art, warm, jovial,
universal Santa image became the global commercial mascot for consumer Christmas,
(14:15):
and the Saints' legacy is absorbed into brand marketing and
seasonal consumption from that point forward. And so, you know,
one of the things that I wanted to also address
is this idea that Santa Claus was actually a shaman,
and I am embarrassed to say at one point I
actually believe this to be the case. I remember probably roughly,
(14:39):
let's see twenty sixteen. Twenty sixteen, still deeply engrossed into
the New Age, a psychonot, believing psychedelics were like the
leading edge of religious experience, heard Terrence mckinna talk about
how Santa Claus is actually an origin tied with Siberian shamanism.
(15:02):
I thought, what, I've never heard this before. And his
argument then goes on to elaborate that he believed because
there is evidence of a variety. Not again, it's not all,
but there are some Siberian communities that engage in amitita
muscaria mushroom use amitita muscaria being the red and white mushroom.
(15:24):
You know, if anybody played Super Mario, know who Toad is.
You know, the red and white mushroom is sort of
iconic and if you don't dry it, it can actually
kill you. And so Terence McKinnon put forth this idea
that is very popular today still that Santa Claus is
actually not Christian at all. You know. He argued that, yeah,
(15:47):
Saint Nicholas really has nothing to do with modern Santa Claus.
What modern Santa Claus is is the repackaging of ancient shamanism.
The idea here is that these Aminita muscaria cults, they
would find the amitie muscaria mushroom. And where did you
find those at You would find them under coniferous trees. Okay,
so then there's the Christmas tree. This is for Terence McKenna.
(16:09):
What do you do with the mushrooms? Once you find them,
you put them on the tree in the sun so
they can dry, so you can consume them. This is
what he argued is the origin of the ornaments on
Christmas trees. Then he talks about how reindeer, which is
a fact, are one of the few animal species which
is known to eat aminitamuscaria mushrooms, and that Siberian shamans
(16:32):
would drink the urine of these reindeers because it has
already been filtered of toxins through the reindeer, that it's
actually less toxic, and that they can get more high
without the toxins by drinking reindeer urine. And so he's
arguing this is the origin of the flying reindeers, that elves.
Elves are part of the d MT experience. Right when
(16:55):
you get into altered psychoonatic space, you encounter these little
entities are arguing, well, actually, what these entities are are
elves that are part of this aminidomuscary experience, and that
Christmas then is the rebirth ceremony connected to mushroom ecstasy,
and that the Christmas Tree is Yigdrasil for those of
you familiar, like the cosmic world tree, the axis of
(17:18):
the axis mundy, the pillar that unites both Middle Earth
with the heavens and with the lower world. Right, this
is something that shamanism always talked about, is the universal Tree. Well,
I wanted to also completely debunk this while we're at
it right now, because there's actually no evidence for this
(17:38):
at all. It's a very compelling narrative, the symbols are
very compelling, but if you actually dive into this stuff,
it's totally achronistic, Like it doesn't line up chronologically because
the whole tradition is established by Christians in the Mediterranean,
(17:59):
who have no no connection to Siberian shamanism, who have
no connection to reindeer or Aminium ascaria mushrooms, and so
all this stuff is sort of a later repackaging or
a reinterpretation of that Americanized secular Christmas myth of modern
day Santa Claus. And so I just want to show
(18:21):
you guys how this stuff is actually fallacious and you
don't even need to worry about it. But once you
see it, you'd be like, oh, oh, okay, I see
why he did that, But it didn't make any sense. So,
for example, there is no evidence Santa originated from any
sort of Siberian myth. He arguabill, Well, Santa's from the
North Pole, it makes sense. Then Santa's actually from Siberian myth.
(18:41):
There's actually no evidence. Again, he's derived from Saint Nicholas
an Asia minor. His cult spread from Byzantium to Italy
to Western Europe. Siberian shamans had zero contact with early
Christian feast development. There is no historical bridge between the
Merian bishop of Saint Nicholas and Siberian mushroom rituals. Second
(19:03):
Aminitamiscaria was not associated with Christmas in Christian Europe. Mushroom
shamanism is documented only in northern Siberian tribes. Saint Nicholas
devotion flourished first in the Mediterranean Christian societies, where amanita
does not even grow predominantly, so there's no cultural transmission.
McKenna actually reverses what I argue. He's reversing. The timeline
(19:26):
Christmas is fully attested to by three point thirty six
AD in Rome, Saint Nicholas already the gift giver, fully
established by the sixth century, Santa Claus mythology fully developed
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as we've already talked
about the paganization done by Protestants. Meanwhile, for Terrence McKenna,
(19:47):
the first academic mention of Syrian mushroom practices isn't until
the seventeenth century, the eighteenth centuries, and McKenna's hypothesis is
really a late twentieth century invention. You cannot use modern
anthropological observation to invent an ancient origin. It doesn't exist.
What about the flying reindeer, It's because they're high on mushrooms, right,
(20:10):
And actually the first appearance of flying reindeer doesn't even
occur until eighteen twenty three and a visit from Saint Nicholas.
It was the night before Christmas. No medieval European artwork, ever,
depicts Santa with reindeer, so clearly that's not the origins
and the way that it was celebrated at all. Reindeer
do eat Amanita, but the fact was unknown when the
(20:31):
myth was created. What about the red and white suit,
he argues, it's a mushroom symbol. Well one, and I
listened to I remember in lectures that he would give,
you'd say, you know, it has nothing to do with Christianity.
Does he even know what the color of the vestments
are during the Nativity. It's red for many of our
(20:53):
our jurisdictions. But if not, it's white. Vestments are white.
So the vestments in the Christian Church when celebrating Christmas
is either red or white. Maybe that's where the colors
come from, again derived from the bishop's red vestments, later
standardized by Thomas Nast and Coca Cola advertising. But just
(21:17):
because there's similar colors, it's a coincidence, not a genealogy.
And oh what the heck happened here? The world Tree
Elves toy workshop are Victorian folklore. Elves appear due to
the nineteenth century European fairy tales. The tree does not
equal cosmic shamanism, and so on and so forth, and so,
(21:41):
just to put the nail in the coffin of anybody
trying to argue that Christmas is a pagan holiday, I
want to tell you why do we celebrate on December
twenty fifth. It was chosen before the solstice mismatch existed.
So when Christians identified December twenty fifth as the date
(22:01):
for the Nativity in the second to third centuries, they
were using the Roman civil calendar of that time, what
we now call the Julian calendar. Okay, and so in
the Julian calendar of the Early Church, December twenty fifth
was nine months after the annunciation. I probably should spell
that right. The feast was tied to the theological symbolism
(22:23):
of the incarnation, not the astrological or astronomical position of
the sun as Pagans understood it. So key theological reasoning
behind December twenty fifth, as we already said, it has
to do with nine months after the point in which
Christ was conceived. And so this logic predates any Solen
(22:44):
Victis connection because Solen Victis, the cult of Solen Victis
comes decades after the establishment of Christmas. At the date
of December twenty fifth. The date began as a symbol
of salvation history, not seasonal mythology regards the movement of
the sun. This just talks about a little bit of
(23:04):
the calendar differences. But was the solstice the real reason
for why Christian shows December twenty fifth. No, Now we
did later embrace the symbolism. But my point with the
different calendars is that the Julian calendar December twenty fifth
does not line up exactly on the winter solstice. That
(23:25):
was later corrected in the Gregorian calendar. Now I'm not
arguing which one's better or not, but I'm just saying,
so even the idea when people say, well, do you
know Christians, they only they celebrate Christ's birth on December
twenty fifth because Price is the sun. He's the sun.
He's the sun in the sky, and it dies for
three days and then it moves up one more it's reborn,
(23:47):
and that's why they do. Do you do know? Right
that on the Julian calendar, December twenty fifth didn't didn't
line up exactly with the winter solstice, so that really
had nothing to do with it. But they did corporated
once once the Gregorian calendar came out and they fixed
it and it did align with the winter solstice. Yeah,
christ as the true light entering the dark world. You know,
(24:10):
there's a lot of symbolism that can be gleaned from that.
This is what I call baptized symbolism, not pagan inheritance.
So who copied who exactly? Here's the historical sequence. Christians
identify March twenty fifth, nine months later December twenty fifth,
that is fully established by the years twenty to two
fifty A d Rome celebrates Nativity liturgically three point thirty
(24:35):
six AD. Aurelian promotes sol Invictis on December twenty fifth,
two seventy four AD, so at least two decades at
the latest date in which Christians had already identified the
date for Christmas. So yeah, overlaps. But Christian calculations are older,
and the solstice alignment was secondary theological, not a borrowed
(24:59):
pagan found Pagan festivals borrowed from Christians, actually not the
other way around. So when Emperor a really An established
soul in Victis on December twenty fifth, he was doing
so because he wanted to slow down and co opt
Christian symbolism to resist Christian growth. Christiane did not adopt
(25:22):
the Pagan feast. Paganism adopted the Christian feast to fight
its expansion. Well, don't you know that Mythross Mythros was
just like Jesus. Really, yeah, Mythros was also he was
born on December twenty fifth. What in the Roman called
mythross birth was not a theme. There is no ancient
(25:44):
tax referring to Mithros birth on December twenty fifth. Mythrus
emerges from a rock, not from a mother. Mithraic worship
focused on initiation, rights, meals, sacrifice, symbolism, cosmic imagery, bull slaying,
No birth celebration on December twenty fifth, zero connection. What
about other claims? You know, certain neo pagan and Internet
(26:04):
sources site Attis, Horus and Osiris, Dionysius, Tamus Adonis. But
these claims are anachronistic and unsupported by ancient sources. For example,
Dionysius has festivals throughout the year, none specifically on December
twenty fifth. Horace had no set birthday tied to a
(26:26):
solstice date. Adonus feasts were in spring, connected to vegetation. Myths.
Saturnalia often wrongly connective to Christmas ended on December twenty third.
None of these gods have a birth on December twenty fifth,
and antiquity, So why has this myth persisted well? Eighteenth
through twentieth century anti Christian polemicists began claiming Christians stole
(26:50):
December twenty fifth from Pagans, but rigorous modern scholarship has
actually reversed this claim. Christians already celebrated December twenty fifth
for biblical theological reasons, and later Pagans and folklore writers
retro actively tried to draw connections. So when anybody wants
to tell you Christmas is a pagan holiday, tell them, no,
(27:15):
it's not a pagan holiday. The only thing pagan about
Christmas is what the It's what the Protestants did due
to their rejection of Saint Veneration and then allowing for
a new amalgamation of Saint Nicholas with basically Northern European
folklore and myths to create some type of figure that
(27:36):
would allow them to still have a winter gift giver
without ever saying the name Saint Nicholas. That's how we
get it. And so if it wasn't for the Protestants,
we wouldn't have a repaganization of Christmas. If anything, Christmas
is the emancipation of Christianity from the ancient pagan world.
(27:57):
But now Christmas, if you look at it today, with
the happy Holidays and the consumerism and the secularism, I
would argue, in the modern myth of Santa Claus, it's
because Protestants and the Protestant Reformation, Santa Claus has been repaganized.
And what we need to do as Orthodox Christians is
(28:17):
re christianize Santa Claus.
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