jessica amber murray
santa isn't just white - he's a white supremacist, too. we should be deconstructing the racism, not denying it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas#The_Netherlands:_Zwarte_Piet
dave
Sinterklaas isn't Santa, hes one of the European predecessors that the Santa figure drew from when it was created in America in the 19th century
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ded_Moroz
Similiar to this guy, there is a number of European seasonal figures that Santa draws from
jessica amber murray
i think it's more accurate to say that sinterklaas evolved into santa claus in the dutch colony of new amsterdam (now called new york). some other ideas may have found their way into the construction, but he's the core of what santa claus is in the sense that he's the root story that the other traditions get attached to.
it seems like it's the same basic process, though, in the sense that both the german and slavic legends are the result of being colonized by christians. in both cases, traditional gods are converted into mythical figures that uphold rather than challenge the authority of the church.
