St. Nicholas Day

Today is the 6th of December.  It is the Feast Day of St. Nicholas.  The 13th of December is the Feast Day of St. Lucy or Santa Lucia.  These feast days are a part of the Advent Calendar and somehow have become the dates when specific Christmas traditions are celebrated in certain parts of the world.  Gift-giving is very much a part of Christmas in the same way that it is integral to Ramadhan.  Charity towards the impoverished and helpless is a theme in the many myths of St. Nicholas.  The Winter Season in the Northern world always was harsh and the poor would suffer more from lack of shelter, heat and food.  It is ironic that the United States now heralds the Advent Season with a festival of Thanksgiving that is an occasion for consumers to shop until they drop.  The so-called 'Black Friday' when sales are aggressive now has been extended to embrace Thursday, the day of the Thanksgiving Feast.  Fights often break out and the queues before the sales even begin are obscene.  Are people buying gifts for others specifically or are they more concerned with 'bargain-hunting'?  I suspect the latter.  It is greed rather than charity that motivates the Black Friday events.

Whatever the ugliness that has obscured the magic of the season, I would like to share some images of St. Nicholas: