• Reading Level 5
English | Science | Geography | PSHE

Flying reindeer and hallucinations in Lapland

Do we need to know where our myths come from? As Christmas Day approaches, we examine the mysterious origins of that much-beloved, white-bearded, reindeer-flying, gift-giver: Santa Claus. In the frosty, northern Finnish territory of Lapland, where northern lightsA natural light display of bright colours in the sky seen in areas close to the North Pole.  sprinkle rainbow shadows across reindeer-filled woods, the shamansPeople who are said to have special powers to interact with good and evil spirits.  of the local Sami people eat hallucinogenic mushrooms. Though the red and white fungi are often toxic, the hallucinations turn the shaman into a mushroom, large and colourful, dotted here and there with spots of white. The reindeer, too, graze on the mushrooms and turn into beasts who can fly. A big red man and flying reindeer in Lapland? Sound familiar? This is the latest theory about the origins of the Santa myth just published on the Aeon magazine website by two researchers, Carl Ruck, a classicist at Boston University, and Lawrence Millman, a writer and mycologistA biologist who studies fungi. . Though this theory seems to tick a lot of boxes, there are of course many other versions - many with a long history. The idea of a Christmas gift-giver has long been linked to the Christian Saint Nicholas of Myra, who lived in Turkey in the third century and was famous for giving young women money to save them from prostitution. Nicholas, the patron saint of children, is still worshipped in many countries and the tradition of putting gifts in shoes or stockings has endured. That said, the saint was never depicted as looking very much like Santa or being able to fly. Those attributes seem to come from the white-bearded, flying-horse-riding pre-Christian NorseA group of peoples who inhabited what is now Scandinavia and northern Germany in the early Middle Ages. god, Odin. There is also mention of a Father Christmas in England as early as the 15th century. A number of other European tales - such as young Christkind, who brings gifts, or then malevolentShowing a wish to do evil to others.  Krampus, who whips children into being nice - evoke early iterations of Santa Claus. But it is not until the 19th century, in the USA, that all these stories really come together into the genial, beady-eyed character we all know and love today. The writer Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem The Night Before Christmas mentions Saint Nick as "chubby and plum", with eight reindeer leading his sleigh. Thomas Nast's illustrations depict him dressed in red and white, weighed down by children's toys. In the 1930s, Coca-Cola perfected the image of Santa Claus that has stuck ever since. Good to know? Or might it be better not to know? Ho Ho Ho Only by knowing the origins of a story can we judge its real value. Many myths are harmful - such as the Victorian myth that being chilly gives you a cold. Many deaths could have been avoided by allowing people more fresh air. On the other hand, knowing the background of a story can often, at best, be irrelevant and, at worst, destroy the pleasure. In order to enjoy the contemporary version, nobody needs to know that Little Red Riding Hood started as a vampire myth. KeywordsNorthern Lights - A natural light display of bright colours in the sky seen in areas close to the North Pole.

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