What if Santa Claus was a Scandinavian god? This question, which may seem absurd, came to me while re-reading the excellent and delirious novel Father Porcher by Terry Pratchett. But let’s look at the facts: the current Santa Claus was taken to the United States by Dutch immigrants who celebrated Saint-Nicolas de Myrre, Sankt Niklaas in Dutch, which became in oral version Sinterklaas (as in Alsace, we say Sùndiklaus rather than Sànkt Nikolaus, we lost a syllable and we changed another). It was around 1770, during the American War of Independence, in the corner of New York (then called New Amsterdam, in relation to the Dutch). By deformation and Anglicism, he became Santa Claus. Not yet in purple or green, he was still still purple-archbishop …
The colors are similar to the English Father Christmas, who wore green or scarlet, and which in the 16th century symbolized the Christmas spirit. Good, but what connection with the gods of Valhalla? In northern Scandinavia, the Vikings celebrated Yule or Jul, or Jule, around the winter solstice, and strange things were happening during this period (this belief was kept in Alsace: between Christmas and Epiphany, better do not go out at night, these twelve nights are the microcosm of the coming year, and everything can go very quickly. These are the Räuhnaacht). Those nights, during Yule, we saw the wild hunt flying in the skies, an army of ghost warriors with at its head, Odin, bearded, old, with his hat screwed on his head, sometimes on his flying horse Sleipnir, he was more like a Panzer than a horse, with its 8 legs. Eight… Eight legs like the 8 reindeer of Santa Claus, who, we rarely think about it, also fly in the air to pull the sled. The God Odin was going to offer gifts to his family, often gold rings for valiant warriors and the righteous, accompanied by the elf Julenisse, hey, already elves in connection with the gifts …
Saint-Nicolas would have inherited many traits of Odin, physical and spiritual. The long staff of the walker, the long beard. Well, Saint-Nicolas is not one-eyed.
And then, Protestantism created in our country the Christkindel, a luminous figure based on Saint Lucia and Saint Odile, a young girl who alone represents the mystery of the Incarnation of the Divine, since this character is both a young girl and the barely born baby Jesus. Yes, it’s complicated, go explain it to the children …