Nicholas of Myra

[Jona Lendering]

Because tomorrow (December 6) is the saint's day of Nicholas of Myra, here is my annual reference to this article about the good man, who is still worshipped in the Netherlands, Flanders, and northern Germany.

[Titvs Statilivs Castvs]

Yeah, Sinterklaas is coming! :lol:

[hoplite14gr]

If you do a search you will see the issue has been discused before.
Our friend Jona Lendering had started it.

Good info there.

Kind regards

[Jona Lendering]

If you do a search you will see the issue has been discused before.
Our friend Jona Lendering had started it.

Yep, and I will continue to celebrate the good man's saint's day every year - hey, I'm Dutch, I have to.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I remember the Dutch celebrations in Borneo from my childhood with a great deal of fondness! (helped greatly by the gingerbread and that powder salt confection)

[Thorvald]

Nicholas of Myra is the Christian personalization of Odin.

However, facts indicates that Sinterklaass is merely Germanic heathen in its origin.

The Christians made from Odin himself a Christian symbol, mixed with the legend if Nicholas of Myra.

[Jona Lendering]

The Christians made from Odin himself a Christian symbol, mixed with the legend if Nicholas of Myra.

Yep, that's true - northwest-European representations of Saint-Nicholas on horseback are similar to Odin on his horse. Of course this says nothing about the Greek and Russian cult of old Nic.

[caiusbeerquitius]

Netherlands, Flanders, and northern Germany.

..and switzerland, and southern Germany, and Austria, and south Tyrolia...

[hoplite14gr]

The saintly figure seemed to have absorbed lots of different cultural elements.
In the 6th century A.D. the saint's day and X-mass were muscj ascoiated if we trust Procopius quoting Belisarius about "St Nicolas day where elders become childlike as our Savior was born".

Torvlad, the saint seems also to be the patron saint of the mariners in many places so I will argue connection with Egir or Mannanan rather than Odin.

Kind regards

P.S Niclaus cookies are Spendit!

[Jona Lendering]

Netherlands, Flanders, and northern Germany.

..and switzerland, and southern Germany, and Austria, and south Tyrolia...

Is the horse also there? Wow. I didn't know that.

I'm not quite sure, BTW, whether the horse is really medieval. It is often said, but evidence for sixteenth-century Dutch Saint-Nicholas never shows the animal. It may be a later invention.