Christmas stocking –A Symbol of joy

The whole world eagerly waits for Christmas to come on 25th of December every year. The ritual of celebrating Christmas started with the birth of a child at Bethlehem and it certainly does not need to explain that it was Jesus Christ-the savior of humanity. But have you ever wandered what does the Christmas tree mean? Why do we hang stockings on the eve of Christmas? Why there is custom of burning of Yule log? Well too many questions at a time. But having a fair idea about these well known rituals is as important as following them on the day of Christmas.

Christmas stocking-

Christmas stocking has an inevitable association with children and childhood. Many of us have wonderful memories of finding wonderful gifts inside the stockings on the eve of Christmas. But this wonderful ritual has very interesting story behind it.

Santa Clause

Santa Clause has his advent from St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra which is a part of present day Turkey. St Nicholas was an unusually generous saint and was extremely famous among children. He had the habit of bringing gifts for children and children used to folk around him. His service to mankind was unparalleled and thus he has a special place amongst all saints. It is indeed impossible forget the old man with long white beard and wearing red robes. And how can we forget the bag full of gifts on his back? In later part of life St. Nicholas served as a patron saint of Russia. It was believed that he could perform miracles and his renown was spread across the whole Christian world. France, Greece, Belgium and many other countries were mesmerized by his magical deeds. He had the power of making every one happy. But there came a time mainly after the Reformation that St. Nicholas was no longer so popular among the devotees. But then he was a saint and his legend was not made to die a silent death. It was Holland which kept his legend alive and it was customary among the children to keep their shoes near the fire place and Sinterklass would leave exciting gifts for them. True, the Dutch used to spell St. Nicholas as Sinterklass and it was only in the 17th century that the name Santa Clause emerged in America.

Since then the world knows him as Santa Clause.

An interesting story…

But the above written facts are not fully responsible behind the traditional belief of receiving gifts from Santa Clause. There is another piece of story. It is said that there were three sisters and they were into extreme penury after the death of their father. St. Nicholas was desperate to save the three sisters from prostitutions and so one day he dropped some gold coins which directly fell into their stockings which were spread for the purpose of drying. The sisters were amazed to find the gold coins on the Christmas day and since then it became custom to leave gifts for children inside their stocking on the eve of Christmas.