We all know how much Christmas is commercialised in the modern world. Not to forget how the tunic of beard man Yuletide coincidentally shares the same colour with the most favourite drink, Coca Cola.
There is this town in Finland, in Laplands over the Arctic Circle, named Rovaniemi. Besides being the spot to view the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis), it is also said the official hometown of Santa Claus. After being flattened out in World War 2, the town promoted itself as a Christmas destination after Eleanor Roosevelt, American First Lady, popularised it. Rovaniemi welcomes about half a million visitors annually.
If the rest of the world is contented with one stereotypical look of Santa, Slovenians can be incredibly proud of their three Santas. Each of their Santa reminds them of a different time in their country's history.
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| Santa, Miklavž and Mraz |
First, there is the story of Saint Nicholas (or Sveti Miklavž in Slovene), a third-century bishop who is reputed to have saved a girl from prostitution by delivering a bag of coin in the dark of the night. Slovenians commemorate this day on the 6th of December by giving presents to children. Miklavž was a relic of the Hapsburg Empire when Roman Catholicism was the religion of the land.
After the Austria-Hungario Empire crumbled after the First World War, the Slovene people became part of the authoritarian rule of Tito of Yugoslavia. Catholicism and religious holidays were banned under the communist regime. So was Saint Nicholas. But the thought of stopping giving presents to children was too much. Hence, Tito continued this tradition modelled after a Russian communist Santa named Ded Moroz. In Slovenia, he was called Dedek Mraz.
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| White Christmas in Slovenia |
When Slovenia became an independent nation in 1991, it was drawn to the western economic model. Naturally, Santa and consumerism ruled the roost. The more, the merrier the Slovenes thought. Now, all three Santas go on a rotation to have a month-long celebration in the month of December.
Each Santa reminds Slovenians of their ancient past - under the Empire, a Russia-controlled ruler and as an independent nation.
It is intriguing how a celebration becomes an ideological or an economic model statement. The powers in control will tell their subjects what should be celebrated and how it should be celebrated. The rest, like lambs, will just follow the herd under the lead of the shepherd, whose sole intention in life is to fatten his flock and prepare them for the slaughterhouse!
(P.S. Meanwhile, in confused Malaysia, in the midst of trying to find her right footing in the ever-changing 21st century, after 50 years of racial and religious indoctrination, has left some of its citizens in a quandary. To wish or not to wish is the question! On the one hand, they are told the Creator created different tribes with various languages so as for people to know each other. Their idol, Zakir Naik, the foreign ultra-conservative evangelist with a bounty on his head, whom they hold in esteem, says it is haram to wish each other 'Merry Christmas'. By wishing so, he insists, that one is accepting that Jesus (or Isa in the Quran) is the Son of God. That, the fact that God (a.k.a. Allah) can have a wife and father a child is sacrilegious.)
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