Zahradníček’s blog for English speaking students

Part twenty seven: St. Nicholas, or Devil?

5^th December. That is the evening preceding 6^th December, the St. Nicholas Day. Atheistic Czechs,
not knowing, keep using the old Hebrew custom that the feast starts already at the sunset of the
previous day.

In the evening of 5^th December, streets start to be full of strange bodies. Some of them are
costumed as a bishop, with a crutch, and the mitra, the special cap that gave the name to valvula
mitralis, the mitral valve. Some have wings, as they should be angels. And some are black, with a
black tail, and these are devils. They come to children. The bishop is not any bishop, it is Saint
Nicholas (270–343 AD), “patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves,
prostitutes, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, and students in various cities and countries around
Europe” as Wikipedia says. This saint comes from Myra, a small island at the coast of what is today
Turkey. Myra itself is recently know under the name of Demre. In Czechia and a few more countries,
St. Nicholas gives small presents (usually sweets) to children just in the evening of 5^th December
(or they find the sweets at the window in the morning of 6^th December). St. Nicholas is “the
honest one”. He reads the list of the child’s sins (or simply, bad thing done by the child – going
to bed too late, not to be polite to relatives, to play with smartphones instead of having lunch...
and so on). The devil reacts quickly – he is just ready to take the child to his bag and to send it
to hell. But good luck, the angel with the St. Nicholas say “no, no, the child is not that bad” and
finally, the child is not sent to hell, it even does not get coal instead of sweets (what is
another usual idea of the devil). Sometimes the child is told to sing a song or to say a poem, and
so the St. Nicholas is happy with this and so the child may get the present.

A funny thing: the same Saint Nicholas from Myra/Demre transformed during the centuries into the
Dutch Sinterklaas and finally to the Irish/American Santa Claus. That is the bearded guy in red
clothes that gives the presents to children during Christmas – in many countries, but not in
Czechia. Czechs have another tradition, in fact, neither very old nor originally Czech: some German
protestant churches disliked the cult of St. Nicolas and they suggested that the Christmas presents
may be delivered to children by the Baby Jesus, Christkindl in German or Jezulátko or Ježíšek in
Czech. Although some people suggest that it has no logic for Christmas presents to be delivered by
a newborn, this tradition is now considered “the only good tradition”. Czech nationalists usually
hate Santa Claus as “foreign and commercial guy” and they say that the presents should be delivered
by Baby Jesus and not Santa Claus. Of course majority of them have no idea that the hated Christmas
Santa Claus and the beloved 6^th December Saint Nicolas is the same person. On the other hand, if
they are disgusted by Santa Claus in red clothes, it is partially understandable. The clothes are
the same as those worn by the Russian Ded Moroz (Дед Мороз), the “Father Christmas”, that delivered
the Christmas presents during communist regime. The communists, obviously, hated both Saint
Nicolas/Santa Claus and Baby Jesus, because both of them were connected with the religion; and
religion (any religion – Christian, Jewish, Muslim or any else) was one of big enemies of
communists.

A big hope in all this story are the children; they do not understand any fight between the
supporters of “Santa”, supporters of “Baby Jesus”, or even “Father Christmas”. They are just glad
that they get some sweets in the beginning of December, and later they get bigger presents in the
Christmas Eve. They are happy because of having the presents, and they would never understand, why
the adults argue, who it the one that should bring them these presents. Probably it is the best
thing they can do.

Children are also happy to see the lights in the squares (in Brno they are now four places with
markets and the programme). But adults have another big conflict: are these markets Christmas
markets? Probably not – Christmas only starts by the Christmas Eve. So they should be rather Advent
markets, as advent is the four-week season that is supposed to get Christian people silent and
concentrated for the Christmas. But... are they really silent?

                                                             Ondřej Zahradníček, 3^rd December 2019