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Happy Canada Day!
On this Canada Day, I have a brief history to share, along with a few quotes about Canada Day.
On July 1, 1867, the British North America Act united the three colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada (now the two provinces of Ontario and Quebec) into a single country within the British Empire. This Act of Parliament was known as the Constitution Act, and it granted Canada substantial freedom from England, although it remained a part of the British Commonwealth, and most Canadians of the time still thought of themselves as British citizens. The Dominion of Canada became a kingdom in its own right, although the British Parliament maintained some rights of limited political control. The first official celebration of Dominion Day marking this occasion was held in 1917, on Canada's 50th birthday. The centennial, in 1967, was the first truly widespread celebration of the birthday.
The national anthem, O Canada, was established on July 1, 1980.
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
A few years ago, the third line was changed to "true patriot love in all of us command," but it doesn't quite come naturally to me yet!
Canada received full and complete independence from Great Britain on July 1, 1982, and later that year, the name Dominion Day was officially changed to Canada Day.
Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die. ~Pierre Trudeau
Canada is the homeland of equality, justice and tolerance. ~Kim Campbell
I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind. ~John Diefenbaker
Whether we agree politically with these former Prime Ministers or not, they said the right things on occasion, which I suppose is probably true of most politicians. Here's what a British Prime Minster had to say about Canada:
There are no limits to the majestic future which lies before the mighty expanse of Canada with its virile, aspiring, cultured, and generous-hearted people. ~Winston Churchill
I hope he's right. I hope Canadians value their freedom and all the advantages they enjoy and fight to keep those freedoms.
Canadians have an abiding interest in surprising those Americans who have historically made little effort to learn about their neighbour to the North. ~Peter Jennings
I have actually found that to be true, especially when we first moved to the USA and were surprised at how much we had to explain about Canada.
Canada is a country whose main exports are hockey players and cold fronts. Our main imports are baseball players and acid rain. ~Pierre Trudeau
Hysterically funny, amazingly talented people. That's what I think of when I think of Canada. That, and cold beer. And mountains. ~Richard Patrick
You forgot hockey and curling!
Here are some links to my past articles with background on a few Canadian treats we enjoy, and the recipes:
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Today is Pentecost on the Christian calendar, and in my experience, it seems that non-litrugical churches don't put much emphasis on this day. In fact, many evangelical believers don't even know what it is! Some of the churches I've belonged to have marked Pentecost and others have not made much of it, so it took me awhile to figure it out. Now, I believe it's quite important, for two reasons. First, it's one of the festivals that God commanded his people Israel to celebrate, which means it was a foreshadowing of how the law would be fulfilled when Messiah came. And second, that fulfillment on the Day of Pentecost recorded in the books of Acts was effectively the birth of the Church.
Pentecost is a celebration of God . . . a celebration of God's power . . . a celebration of God's desire to empower us and to dwell within us. ~Mark Hart
From the day of Pentecost until the present time, it has been necessary to be of one accord in prayer before the Spirit of God will work with mighty converting power. ~John Mott
My brethren, do you believe in the Holy Ghost? . . . Have we such a reliance upon the Holy Ghost? Do we believe that, at this moment, He can clothe us with power, even as He did the apostles at Pentecost? Do we believe that, under our preaching, by His energy a thousand might be born in a day? ~Charles Spurgeon
So what IS Pentecost? In the Old Testament, when God gave the law to Moses at Sinai, he instructed Israel to celebrate certain festivals every year. One of those was Shavu'ot, or the Feast/Festival of Weeks. This was a harvest celebration that took place 50 days after Passover. The 50 days is where the Greek name Pentecost comes from.
Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you. And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name―you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you.
~Deuteronomy 16:10-11~
This was a huge party to celebrate how God had provided and would continue to provide, and everyone in Israel was invited! All of Israel was expected to be there, and everyone who worshiped the God of Israel was supposed to be welcome!
So on the first Festival of Weeks after Jesus' death and resurrection, Jewish people from all over had come to Jerusalem to celebrate. Jesus had returned to heaven, but he had told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come to them. They must have been ready to celebrate the Festival of Weeks as the law required, and I wonder whether they expected something very special to happen on the Day of Pentecost? They were all together and in prayer, and it was special indeed!
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
In Acts 2:5, Luke says that Jews "from every nation under heaven" were gathering in Jerusalem at the time for the Pentecost feast . . . It is one of three main festivals that brought hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Jerusalem for a big celebration.
The "whole world" had come to them.
Pentecost sparked an international effort to include everyone, Jewish and non-Jewish, into God's family, which is one reason we see the "speaking in tongues" miracle happening. In Greek, "tongues" can refer to real human languages, and that seems to be Luke's point in Acts 2:8. He captures the question everyone is asking: "How is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?"
So what is Pentecost Sunday all about? It's about this unexpected (yet expected) moment in 1st-century Jerusalem when the apostles' heads caught fire, when a strange indoor windstorm swirled through a packed party filled with international travenelers. It is the day foreshadowed by every wind-and-fire episode in the Old Testament and the day Jesus promised would happen as he quoted the prophet Isaiah. It's the moment his loving Church began, and it's the beginning of a new, peaceful world. Happy Pentecost!
And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone who the Lord our God calls to himself."
And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation."
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
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(This article has been updated for 2024, and I'm sharing it the day before Purim. Purim 2024 begins at sundown on Saturday, March 23rd, and continues through Sunday night, March 24th. The original article was posted on February 25, 2021, and I have left my references to 2021 dates alone rather than rewrite too much.)
I'm pretty late to today's party, but did want to acknowledge the celebration of Purim today!
If you're not Jewish (I'm not), you may be wondering what this holiday is all about, and you might also be wondering why it might matter to anyone who isn't Jewish. Like me. Well, for me, I'm interested in all kinds of cultural celebrations just because I'm interested in history and other cultures. But I find Jewish holidays especially intriguing because the most important ones are commanded by God, and tell us a lot about God and his relationship to his people. Purim is a celebration that isn't commanded by God, but the story of its origin is in the Bible, and it's also a story of God saving his people.
Purim is celebrated every year on the 14th of the Jewish month of Adar. In 2021 that's February 25th. The celebration begins at sundown on Thursday (today), and ends on Friday evening. It's a holiday that dates back to the ancient Persian empire and commemorates the Jewish people being saved from the evil plan of a Persian prime minister to wipe them out. The name comes from the Persian word for "lots" as in casting lots or throwing dice. So what happened? You can read the whole story in the Old Testament book of Esther, but here's my short summary:
The Jewish people were subjects of the Persian Empire during the 4th century BC. During the reign of King Ahasuerus, he deposed his queen and searched for a new queen among his subjects. A Jewish girl named Esther was chosen. She was cousin to Mordecai, a Jewish leader and an advisor to the king, but her Jewish heritage was kept a secret. The Persian prime minister Haman devises a plot to get revenge on his rival Mordecai by killing all the Jews and tricks the king into signing this into law. (This is the part where they cast lots - the purim - to determine the date for this genocide.) Mordecai alerts Esther and challenges her to go to the king. After a period of fasting, Esther risks her life to go to the king and is able to expose Haman's plot and thus save her people.
So on the day that the tables were turned and Haman and his family were executed instead, Jewish people celebrate to remember this event and how they were saved.
On the day before Purim, it's customary to fast because Esther and the Jews fasted before she went to the king. Once the celebration begins, though, it's fun and joyous! Purim celebrations include reading the story from the Megillah (the Hebrew scroll), giving gifts to the poor, feasting and sending gifts of food. Often children dress up in costumes - and sometimes adults do too! During the reading of the story, listeners will boo, stomp their feet, or use noisemakers when the name of Haman is mentioned. He's the bad guy, and his name is to be wiped out.
Sometimes people wonder why the book of Esther is included in the Bible, since it doesn't mention God by name. I think that the "coincidences" surrounding Mordecai's favor with the king, Haman's plan and the timing of it, and Esther's position in the royal household all point to God's hand at work. Mordecai and Esther are observant Jews - they fast and pray and call upon all the Jews to do the same, and God works on their behalf. I believe the bold and unusual plan Esther used to appeal to the king was put on her heart by God as she fasted and prayed.
You see, even though she was a royal wife and the queen, she was not supposed to go to the king. She had to wait for him to summon her, which he hadn't done for quite some time. If she went to him, and he wasn't interested, she could be put to death. She actually reminded Mordecai of this fact, and his response to her is one of my favorite lines: "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4.14)
She responds: "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish." (Esther 4:16)
What courage! After this persistent calling on God through fasting, she is ready to go to the king. Here's where her plan is crazy brilliant and unexpected. She could be killed just for walking in uninvited, but when the king receives her warmly and says he'll give her anything at all she asks for, she says she just wants to invite him and Haman to dinner. What?! Then at the banquet, the king repeats his generous offer - he is persistent in wanting to honor her! - and she says that they are invited to dinner again the next day. Before that second dinner, Haman winds up having to honor Mordecai at the king's command, and he loathes it. In his fury, he has a gallows made ready thinking he'll get his revenge on Mordecai very soon. But then at the second banquet, Esther makes her request - she asks for her life and the lives of her people, and she reveals that Haman is the villain plotting against the Jews.
The persistence of Esther and Mordecai pays off when God intervenes and turns the tables so that the Jews are allowed to defend themselves and get revenge on their enemies. Despite Haman's persistent hatred, his plans are foiled and he gets what he deserves.
God has always kept his promises. He will always save his people, and he will always be in control. That's one of the lessons to learn from Esther - be persistent in faith and obedience to God.
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For more about Purim and the book of Esther, see these valuable resources:
There are a lot of foods associated with Purim celebrations, but the best known is the cookie called Hamentaschen. These are three-cornered pastries or cookies with a sweet filling. They are often given as gifts. Here's one of the recipes I've used before:
Hamentaschen (adapted from America the Beautiful)
2 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup cold butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg white
cherry, strawberry or apricot preserves
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Cut butter into small pieces and blend into flour mixture using a pastry blender. Mix egg, egg white and sugar together, then blend into flour mixture. Mix to a stiff dough. Divide into two discs, wrap each in plastic and chill for about 30 minutes. Roll out to 1/8-inch thickness. (The original recipe suggested doing this between two sheets of waxed paper. I used a floured pastry board, but did find that a sheet of waxed paper on top kept the dough from sticking to the rolling pin without incorporating more flour into the dough.) Using a biscuit cutter or cookie cutter, cut dough out into circles about 2-1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. Spoon about a quarter-sized drop of preserves onto each circle. Fold the edges in to form a triangle, overlapping the corners and pinching them a little. Bake about 1 inch apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet in a 350* oven, for about 15 minutes. The preserves will start to bubble and the cookies will be a light golden brown when done. Cool on a wire rack before serving. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
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I'm participating in the Wednesday Quotes link-up hosted by Marsha at Always Write. And although the Ides of March is almost over by now, that's what I'll be writing about.
Beware the Ides of March. ~William Shakespeare
What is the Ides of March, and why should anyone be wary of it? We all quote the line, and I think a lot of us know it's from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, but I suspect that might be all we know about it. I sure don't know much more than that, so I thought I'd find out.
Although some of the months in our calendar come from Roman names, the Romans didn't use quite the same calendar, and they didn't number the days like we do. They had three set points in each month, and it was based more on the moon. The Ides was the first full moon of each month. The Nones is the 5th or 7th or 8th days before the Ides, and the Kalends is the first day of the following month. The Ides falls on the 13th of most months, but on the 15th in four months, including . . . you guessed it! . . . in March. The Ides of March would be first full moon of a new year, and was the beginning of spring, which naturally meant feasting and celebrating.
On the Ides is held the jovial feast of Anna Perenna . . . The common folk come, and scattered here and there over the green grass they drink, every lad reclining beside his lass, Some camp under the open sky; a few pitch tents; some make a leafy hut of boughs, Others set up reeds in place of rigid pillars, and stretching out their robes place them upon the reeds,But they grow warm with sun and wine, and they pray for as many years as they take cups, and they count the cups they drink. ~Ovid
by night only crazy things
like the full moon and the whippoorwill
and us, are busy. ~Charles Olson
Does the full moon affect people's behavior, you ask? Yup. It makes people think the full moon affects people's behavior. ~Neil deGrasse Tyson
He made the moon to mark the seasons,
and the sun knows when to go down.
~Psalm 104:19~
The Ides of March was also the day that consuls (state officials) took office. At least until 153BC when, for some reason, the consuls started their terms on the first day of January. And then, along came Julius Caesar and in 46BC he changed the Roman calendar to establish January 1st as the start of the New Year.
Julius Caesar didn't get to celebrate very many New Years before he was assassinated. He was stabbed to death in the Senate house by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus on the Ides of March in the year 44BC, and of course that's how the date came to be such a well-known one. And it was obviously a huge event that changed the course of Roman history. Following his death there were a series of Roman civil wars that finally ended with the rise to power of Octavian, Caesar's adopted heir. In 27BC Octavian became the emperor Augustus, and that was the end of the Roman Republic.
But back to Caesar and the Ides of March . . . Ovid wrote about Caesar's murder as an act of sacrilege. On the fourth anniversary of his death, Octavian executed 300 senators and others as a way to avenge Caesar. Beware the Ides of March, indeed!
I hope your Ides of March has been a good one, with nothing to beware of, and no bad moon rising other than the enjoyment of this classic song!
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Happy Valentine's Day! I don't usually take Valentine's Day celebrations very seriously, but I like chocolate (preferably dark chocolate) and flowers as much as the next girl. Plus it's so sweet to see the younger couples being all romantic.
Romance is thinking about your significant other, when you are supposed to be thinking about something else. ~Nicholas Sparks
I think of love, and you, and my heart grows full and warm, and my breath stands still... I can feel a sunshine stealing into my soul and making it all summer, and every thorn, a rose. ~Emily Dickinson
A few years ago I got curious enough about the history of Valentine's Day to do a quick research project for my homeschool blog, and I'm reusing some of that info here. How did we arrive at Valentine's as a day for giving flowers and chocolates and cute heart-shaped cards from it's beginnings as a day to remember a Christian martyr? Turns out the history may even go further back than the Christian saints named Valentine or Valentinus (there were at least three of them, and all were martyred for their faith). A pagan Roman holiday called Lupercalia was celebrated in the middle of February, and it was a fertility festival. As you can imagine, it was deemed "un-Christian" and was outlawed; and it's entirely possible that the Church made the choice to celebrate a Christian patron saint of marriage at this time of year in an effort to "Christianize" and replace Lupercalia.
Valentine's Day is all about LOVE nowadays, but it did start out as the feast day of a Christian martyr. Saint Valentine's history is intertwined with legend, but it's known that he took a stand for Christian marriage during a time when the Roman emperor forbade his soldiers to marry. One popular story says that while he was in prison, Valentine became close to his jailer's daughter (they might even have been in love!) and when he was taken away to be executed, he left her note. It was signed, "From your Valentine".
During the Middle Ages, young men and women would draw names to see who would be their Valentine, and the names would be pinned to their sleeve, giving rise to the expression, "wearing your heart on your sleeve".
Oh! if it be to choose and call thee mine,
Love, thou art every day my Valentine.
~Thomas Hood, "For the 14th of February"
Valentine greetings were popular during the Middle Ages, with the first written greetings appearing during the 1400s. The oldest known valentine is a poem that Charles, Duke of Orleans wrote to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1415. The practice of sending cards and flowers to loved ones on Valentine's Day became popular in England during the 1700s. By the middle of the 18th century, friends and lovers of all social classes exchanged these tokens of affection. Hallmark produced the first commercially printed card in 1913, and ready-made cards made it easier for people to express emotions during a time in history when that was not often encouraged. Today, more than a billion Valentine's cards are sold each year. And many people like to create their own cards - especially kids.
That heart shape, like the box your chocolates came in, wasn't representative of love until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. At that time the heart was thought of as a book of memory, where God's commands could be written, and where thoughts of one's beloved could be written as well. During the 14th century, an Italian poem accompanied by an illustration featuring hearts and a cupid throwing arrows and roses was what started our association of those lacy hearts and cupid's arrows with romantic love. You have Richard Cadbury (yes, Cadbury's chocolate) to thank for the traditional heart-shaped box of candy. He gave chocolates in a heart-shaped box to his sweetheart in 1868, and the company began producing the boxes with hand-decorated lids.
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt. ~Charles M. Schulz
The best place to learn about true love is the Bible, where we find out just how much God loves us and how he wants us to love others.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
~I John 4:7-11~
Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
~Matthew 22:37-39~
Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly.
~I Peter 1:22~
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
~I Peter 4:8~
Happy Valentine's Day!
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Valentine's Day is a time to celebrate the joy of being in love. Unless you're single & lonely then it's called Laundry Day. ~Dane Cook
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This post appears first on A Fresh Cup of Coffee, with material inspired by these posts from Homeschool Coffee Break in years past.
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For the past few years I have been teaching high school writing in our homeschool tutorial co-op. Having seen several groups of students through the courses, I've noticed some issues and questions coming up regularly. I hope these Tip Sheets will be helpful to my students, their parents, and perhaps to other students and parent/teachers as well.
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In essays and research papers at the high school level, students should be able to provided a correctly formatted Works Cited page and should be able to use in-text citations, parenthetical citations, and signal phrases in their writing. Most students have learned at least some of these skills by the time they reach high school, but it can still be confusing. Here's a quick refresher and some good sources for more detailed information.
Source Information
As you're researching and taking notes, make sure to keep a record of all the sources you use, and which info came from which source. Note taking is probably an entire tip sheet of its own, but the basic gist is that you need to know specifically where each fact, quote, or reference comes from in the source. A good practice is to keep a Source Page or Working Bibliography as you research. Write down (or type) all the bibliographic information you'll need - author, title, publisher info, and date. For web sources, keep the specific URL and record the date you accessed the information. You may want to consider printing the information as well, if practical.
Works Cited Page
The most commonly used style is Modern Language Association (MLA), and if you use Google Documents or a Word program, you will find templates that format reports and Works Cited pages in MLA style automatically. Foolproof, right?! Well, yes, but you still have to know what information to plug in, what order it appears in, and how to correctly alphabetize the list. Alphabetize by the first item that appears for each source, which is usually the author's last name. Format is hanging indent, which means the first line of each entry starts at the left margin, and the second line is indented. Do not center. Works cited should appear at the end of your essay or paper, and on a separate page. Here's what it looks like using a couple of sources I recommend:
*Note that these examples are done following the 8th edition of MLA style.
In-Text Citations
When you use MLA documentation, you will use in-text citations, meaning you incorporate the source information in the text of your paper. When you use a fact, idea, or quote from one your sources, you use a signal phrase to let the reader know you're about to share something borrowed from the source. At the end of the quote or statement, you include a parenthetical citation that will refer the reader to the complete source information on the works cited page. Examples of signal phrases include:
According to author and teacher Sharon Watson, . . .
" . . . ," writes Shona McCombes, a contributor at Scribbr.
At the end of the quotation or cited fact, you include a parenthetical citation. This is where you put the page number where the information is found in the source. If you did not include the author's name in the signal phrase, the author's last name should appear in the parentheses as well. Take a look at these examples:
In the textbook The Power in Your Hands, teacher Sharon Watson reminds students to include the credentials of anyone quoted so that readers will know the information is trustworthy (237).
Correct punctuation can be a challenge, and questions often arise about the placement of quotation marks and end marks. A parenthetical citation is part of the sentence but not the quotation. "In other words, it appears after end quotation marks but before the period" (Watson 241). Another important detail to note is that there is no comma between the author's name and the page number.
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Those are the basics! Using in-text citations is not difficult, but it takes a bit of practice to remember some of the rules. Check out the following online sources with lots of detailed information about citing specific types of sources.
On the Writing with Sharon Watson website, there are a number of free writing prompts and tutorials, including this one for In-text Citations for High School. You should also refer to the updated versions of a couple of lessons from the textbook I mentioned above, as the 8th edition of MLA style came out after publication of the textbook and there are a couple of changes to the format of citations. There is now a 9th edition of MLA style, and in my very quick check for changes to citations and Works Cited pages I didn't see anything different, but don't take my word for it! Go to the 2020 article: New Tutorials to Document Sources for an explanation of updates to MLA style and a link to download the 2020 lessons. These updated lessons from the textbook are available at no charge.
The textbook The Power In Your HandsfromWriting with Sharon Watson is the one I've taught from in the co-op for several years, and I highly recommend it. You can find out more in one of my full reviews. The most recent is:
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Yes, my kids have been "too old" for Santa Claus for many years, and we never even focused on Santa when they were little, but I wonder if they will remember Saint Nicholas Day this year. After all, he used to leave candy and gifts for them at the beginning of December. True, they never wrote a letter to Santa or cared much to visit him at the mall, but they did like the little tradition of leaving their shoes by the fireplace for Saint Nicholas the evening before his feast day.
When the kids were very little, I started letting them leave their shoes by the fireplace on the night before St Nicholas Day - along with paper carrots for his horse! - and in the morning they were delighted with the candy and small gifts that had been left for them. Once they were a little older, threre were some years that we incorporated some seasonal learning into our homeschool by spending the day looking at the history and customs associated with St Nicholas. Somehow this little tradition stuck, and even as teens and young adults, they kept hoping for a little gift and some chocolate or candy on December 6th!
One nice thing about doing those little gifts on St Nicholas Day is that we didn't feel quite the pressure to fill the stockings to overflowing on Christmas morning. There would be a few small practical gifts and some treats in the stockings, but it was low-key. And let's face it - even little gifts to fill a stocking can really add up and make it a challenge to stick to a budget for Christmas! For younger kids, doing a Santa type thing early in the month can also make it just a little easier to focus on the Nativity and on family come Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Many years ago, I wrote a guest post for the Homeschool Review Crew blog about St Nicholas (which you can still find on the Crew blog here:St. Nicholas Day). This is an update of a previous post that summed up some of the historical information about St Nicholas shared in that guest article:
Nicholas was a real historical figure who lived during the third century. He grew up in a Greek village in what is now the country of Turkey. His parents were wealthy, but died during an epidemic while Nicholas was still quite young; and he used his entire inheritance to help the needy, the sick, and the suffering. When Nicholas was a young man, he became the Bishop of Myra; and he was well-known for his generosity, his love for children, and his concern for sailors. Bishop Nicholas was exiled and imprisoned for his faith, and the anniversary of his death on December 6, 343, became a widely celebrated feast day. The generosity of Bishop Nicholas was well-known, and there are many stories of his care and protection of children. One popular story about Nicholas leaving dowry money in stockings of poor young ladies is the origin of the custom of leaving shoes or stockings by the fireplace in hopes of gifts. St Nicholas is known as the patron saint of children and of sailors; and he is an example to all Christians of generous giving and compassion.
The Feast Day of St Nicholas is celebrated all around the world on December 6th. Children leave their shoes and their wishlists for St Nicholas, and carrots and hay for his horse. In the morning, they find small treats and gifts. In some countries where St Nicholas is prominent, his feast day is actually the primary gift-giving day during the Advent and Christmas season. Children find their stockings filled with small gifts, nuts or fruit, and special Nicholas candies or cookies. Since the saint is known for his generosity, gifts given on his day are meant to be shared, not hoarded!
Okay, so how did St Nicholas become Santa Claus? It's a long and sometimes confusing story, but it starts in 1809 with Washington Irving's satirical stories that reference a jolly Dutch character named St Nicholas. Then in 1821 a children's book showed 'Sante Claus' arriving on Christmas Eve in a sleigh drawn by flying reindeer. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Those were the images that influenced the 1823 poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (better known as "The Night Before Christmas and generally attributed to Clement Moore). They also influenced the drawings of artist Thomas Nast in his series of drawings for Harper's Weekly starting in 1863. And with that, the Americanization of St Nicholas was almost complete! By the end of the 1920s, many artists were portraying Santa in a red suit trimmed with fur, and this version became an advertising icon during the 1930s with the immensely popular Coca-Cola ads by artist Haddon Sundblom.
I wonder how many children around the world will wake up to treats and gifts in the shoes they've left out by a fireplace! I wish I could have introduced my grandchildren to this little custom already. Although I was thinking about baking Peppernuts sometime during the month, I know it won't happen this week. If you're not familiar with them, Peppernuts are spicy cookies that associated with St Nicholas in many countries. You can find my family's recipe and more about this favorite cookie in my Twelfth Day of Christmas post from quite a few years ago.
Whether you celebrate the Feast of St Nicholas or not, it's a great opportunity to talk about the historical St Nicholas and his example of being a generous and cheerful giver. I hope you'll take a moment to leave a comment letting me know your thoughts!
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To find out more about St Nicholas, try some of the following resources:
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