By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
The true story of Santa Claus starts with St. Nicholas, born during the third century in what is now Turkey.
Today, Dec. 6, the day he died around 343 AD, is St. Nicholas Day, Justus Gage students learned Monday.
St. Nicholas' wealthy parents raised him to be a devout Christian. They died in an epidemic while Nicholas was young.
Obeying Jesus' words to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor,” Nicholas devoted his inheritance to assisting the needy, the sick and the suffering.
For dedicating his life to serving God, Nicholas was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man.
He became known widely for his generosity to those in need, his love for children and his concern for sailors and ships.
Dec. 6 is still the main day for gift giving in much of Europe.
Justus Gage students will find Santa filled their shoes with treats.
In the Netherlands, legend has it that “Sinterklaas,” the Dutch name for St. Nicholas, arrives by steamboat from Spain two weeks before along with helper Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) to help distribute gifts and candy to good children.
Bad children are threatened with being taken back to Spain with the white-bearded figure in a red mantle.
Belgium and Luxemburg have similar traditions. So do France and Germany, but there he's known as Father Christmas.
France's “Pere Noel” rewards good children with presents, while companion Pere Fouettard disciplines bad children with spankings.
Russia formerly celebrated St. Nicholas Day, but communism changed him to Grandfather Frost dressed in blue. “Santa Lucia” visits Sicily on Dec. 13.
Old World Victorian Santa, who arrived in Dowagiac Friday night in a horse-drawn carriage during the 25th annual Christmas parade, said no one owned more than a pair or two of socks they washed daily and hung by the fireplace to dry.
Stockings were a good place for St. Nicholas to sneak into homes and leave money where recipients would be sure to find it.
Santa used a globe to show the North Pole's location at the top of the world where Russia, Scandinavia (Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark), Greenland, Canada and Alaska converge. To navigate the icy terrain, he turned to reindeer, as Laplanders did. Santa left two books with media aide Vicki Herter so students could read more at their leisure about reindeer.
Both male and female reindeer have antlers - not horns, because they grow back. Santa showed a huge rack of antlers he said came from Dasher and smaller antlers from Vixen.
Wide reindeer feet split, with two forward toes and two backward toes that act like snow shoes. “They also use those hooves to scrape snow away” and get at the moss and lichen they eat.