The myth of Odin and how Santa came to be

No. Christmas is not the most significant of Christian holidays. Easter is. 

The cross is the symbol of Christianity, not the manger.

However, Christmas is the most extravagantly celebrated, with most buying and giving. 

Most gifts are to the self, thanks to capitalism with its defining characteristics — individualism, materialism, and consumerism.

By early December, stores of all kinds and sizes across the world begin to sparkle. 

Dressed in red, green, gold, black and white colours of ribbons, lights, and drawings, every other store shouts: “Sale! Sale! Sale!”. 

It is all unnecessary. Nobody would miss their merchandise sprawled out like 3-D images.

Stores that ordinarily play loud booming music and those that are normally silent like cemeteries change to soft enticing music. 

The kind of music that makes the proverbial snake slither out of the pockets, oops, sorry, the pot. 

With such immense charm that twilight girls would be envious, the stores compete in tempting Christians and non-Christians alike to buy their wares. Few resist. 

This is evident on Christmas Day — in church, at home, and in the streets.

To make dull the guilt of extravagance, Christians (and) capitalists associate the Christmas tradition of gift-giving to a Biblical story. 

The story of the three wise men who gave gifts to Mary’s new born, Baby Jesus.

Yet, the association between the two is like that of milk and lemon. 

Gifting new born babies is a necessity. 

Across time and space, human babies must be fed, clothed and housed soon after birth. 

Do not be fooled. 

“Mungu akileta mtoto, analeta na sahani yake” (when God gives you a child, God provides for it) is gross misinterpretation of Sauti Sol’s Nerea. 

Babies make demands as soon as they are born, nay, conceived. 

Short old man

The Christmas tradition of gift-giving originates from North Germanic paganism, the Old Norse religion. 

Among the many gods of the Old Norse religion was Odin.

Mythically, Odin is portrayed as a short old man with a big stomach and a long white beard. 

Throughout winter nights, Odin would fly across the skies and drop gifts into the boots of children who behaved well.

The boots would be placed by the hearth to dry.

In spite of the introduction of Christianity, the myth and the practice of gifts during winter continued. 

Unable to deconstruct the myth, Christians had to negotiate and reconstruct this social reality. 

The opportunity came in the fourth Century Turkey. 

A short fat man with a big stomach and a long white beard heard about a poor man who had three daughters. 

The poor man was distraught because he could barely afford to feed his daughters.

Worse, he could not pay their dowry. 

As in present day Asia, brides gave property or money to men for marriage. 

Women beyond marriageable age who could not afford dowry would be forced to become prostitutes to earn a living.

With the possibility of marriage for his daughters shrinking with each passing day, the poor man would be even more distressed.

Bag of gold

Moved by the situation of the poor man and his daughters, the short fat man, decided to help. Secretly. 

He threw a bag of gold into the poor man’s house through an open window one evening. 

The bag fell inside a boot, drying by the hearth.

Neither the man nor his daughters saw the bag until early the following morning. 

Since all the windows were still closed, they concluded that the bag had fallen from the skies.

Long after the giver and the gifted men had died, the identity of the giver, the short fat man with a long beard, was revealed. 

He was declared a saint, Saint Nicholas.

Born in AD 270, Nicholas grew to become a fourth Century Bishop of Myra, the capital of Lycia in Asia Minor.

Lycia, then part of the Roman Empire, is in modern day Turkey.

Today, St Nicholas continues to be celebrated as the patron saint of the poor, children, and women—especially prostitutes. 

St Nicholas is believed to be the inspiration for Santa Claus—the short fat man with a big stomach and a long white beard portrayed across stores.

Inspired by St Nicholas, gift the nickel-less this Christmas. 

Eunice Kamara is a professor of religion at Moi University.