No. The best version of Robin Hood is Mel Brooks classic, Robin Hood Men In Tights. No, you can't change my mind on that fact either. Just accept you're wrong and move on. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and yours, btw. 😊
8:40 Not only does Sinterklaas bring a switch for naughty kids (according to family legend one of my uncles actually did this to his kids once), the really bad ones are put in Piet's sack and taken away. This was always a source of hilarity for children if Sint and Piet showed up somewhere and asked if a particular kid had been nice and they would be met with cries of "In the bag! In the bag!"
Best version of Robin Hood is the 1938 version featuring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland and the best version of A Christmas Carol is the Alastair Sim film 1951. Merry Christmas to one and all!
Another great video that I didn't know I needed until I heard it. Your catalog of work is one that I look forward to showing my kids as they get older. Thank you for all your effort and dedication to the truth, God bless.
Thank you for another awesome video. You are incredible! Sending you many blessings and best wishes for a very merry Christmas and happy new year. Peace from the blind guy!
Was “the night before Christmas” originally meant to refer to December 5th? I don’t think it’s mentioned when the transition to the holiday being on the 25th first happened
Great question. Depends on country initially. So Germany and a few others they make that move quickly with the Christ Child thing. In New York they are celebrating St Nicholas’ day but when they invent the new modern Santa Claus stories they make it Christmas Eve.
Your content is a joy to watch and absorb. A shining light of well researched knowledge amongst all the cacophony of bells and whistles that choke the web. All the best for the festive season and for 2024. I eagerly await more.
Just discovered your channel. It's fantastic. Just watched this Santa clause one and your first Viking one. Looking forward to watching more! Thank you ❤
In my own research I came across a fella by the name of Thomas Nast who produced the first image of Santa clause in 1863 and went on in 1866 to produce “The Works of Santa Clause” which contained much of the lore you mentioned and what we now associate with Santa. Another thing I found was that the song “Santa Clause is coming to town” produced in the same time period as the coke ads was one of that factors that led to a fully formed American Christmas tradition
Thomas nast had a representation of Santa as a tiny fat elf, smaller than the naughty list he's reading in said 'works of Santa Claus'. He seems to me to be an intermediary character in the amalgamation of the Santa story between Moore and the final artwork of sundblom. I would say less important to note
@@exospook4400dismissal of all the remaining work and research done for only missing one person's work on the subject matter is a rather harsh dismissal given the rest of the good evidence presented. Through my own research I've found much of the same influences in play and haven't found any reason to doubt this information. Rather than rejection of remaining information based on one missed piece wouldn't you rather do some of your own research to test the 'veracity' of the work?
Great video thank you! One minor thing, though, my understanding is that the link between Christmas and Saturnalia is likely overstated (with maybe some cross-pollination re: specific traditions) and that 25th December was identified due to an older tradition that calculated the date of someone's death based on the date of their conception. Can you speak to this at all?
At the very start of the video he says “there’s almost no connection between the practice of Christmas and Saturnalia”…or are you saying there’s more connection than what he’s representing (which he says scholars would not agree with)? Regarding your question on the nativity, sounds like a topic for a separate video.
Would love if you could pick up where you left off with the church history series. Tracing the modern church through the Jesus culture movement and the emergent church.
@@RyanReevesM Glad you are back. I first saw your videos in 2016. Have you considered doing a series on American based Christianity such as JW, LDS and or 7 day Adventism? 👍
What about Thomas Nast, J.C. Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell, all of whom pretty much created the look of Santa prior to Haddon Sundblom? History doesn't happen at stops in time--it is ongoing even when historians aren't noticing. I'm sure it is hard to explore all of Santa in 26 minutes. But there is a lot here that was left out.
Thanks for this Ryan, very historical and informative. Could you please do one on the origins of Easter? The historically inaccurate narrative that it was a pagan holiday has become has become mainstream, even among Christians.
Fascinating video. I enjoyed that it gave this cozy feeling as well how apropos. Indeed it seems while having the kernel of European winter season traditions, Santa Clause is a product of modernity and forming new traditions for a relatively nascent culture in America. Right down to the iconic imagery coming from commercialization.
Thomas Nast also had an important role in the image of Santa Claus as a jolly fat man given how widely his cartoons were published. Many late 19th century newspapers also contributed to the lore around Santa over time like the fact that he lived at the North Pole or had a wife.
"Modern Turkey" in stead of "The Byzantine Empire" sounds a bit odd in this story. The oldest reference to "Black Pete" in the Netherlands is found in the works of a school teacher from around 1850. In other European countries, Saint Nicholas was then still travelling with a devil (Krampus) as companion.
That was very informative. Over here in the UK some of us tend to cling to the name Father Christmas as opposed to Santa Claus but he really has no separate identity.
I live in the former Soviet Union where they traditionally have Father Winter, or Ded Moroz who comes on New Year's Day. But due to Americanization you're now seeing more and more of the Coke-a-cola Santa replace Ded Moroz.
It's fascinating to see how many separate, older traditions have influenced our modern Christmas, some more than others. The more negative figures have mostly fallen by the wayside (although you do still have such more negative figures as Krampus, Knecht Rupprecht, or Frau Holle in some areas here in Germany, for instance.) We've kept the positives of the Christmas spirit, generosity, gift giving, celebrations, feasting and fun, that are so very necessary to get us through the dark, cold midwinter. I love the Christmas season, and wouldn't miss it for the world. ❤🎁🥂🎄🥳
I love that you go for quality over quantity with your channel but I think we're due for a new video. Some more content on religious art like your Rembrandt video would be great. Would also love to hear you get into the relationship between some classical composers and religion as well.
Another idea Dr. Reeves for a video is about The Shroud of Turin . Probably you can give us more Historical Context of this particular piece of history.
Dear Ryan , relative, relatable research. Refreshing in recognizing reality from rumoured ramblings. ( Hmmmm....) wRapped with red ribbons of rationality.
I did know most of these little facts about Saint Nick already, but another one, which hasnt been mentioned is that the 8 reindeers and Santa's sleigh is based on odins 8 legged horse pulling his sleigh through the sky on Yuletide?? Also wassailing was the original pagan version of carol singing
Like this song, (there are several more verses)? Sometimes people sing caroling instead of wassailing. "Here we come a-wassailing Among the leaves so green; Here we come a-wand'ring So fair to be seen. Love and joy come to you, And to you your wassail too; And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year And God send you a Happy New Year."
Three different Church Fathers calculated December 25 as Christ's birthday, and they did it from Scripture. It has to do with the timing of Zechariah's service as priest in Luke chapter 1. There isn't any evidence that it had anything to do with Saturnalia.
I just had this chat with my 12 year old daughter. Our Santa doesnt have a naughty and nice list...everyone is on the naughty list. Santa gives because Christ gave to him. His giving is his response to the Gospel. You're right to wrap up, Santa is very malleable.
There is no connection between Saturnalia and the original Christmas i.e. the mass celebrating the birth of Christ (except for the date) but aspects of the Saturnalian festival continued to be practiced. I agree that Christmas didn't evolve out of Saturnalia or some Norse tradition but in the popular celebrations of Christian holidays, pre-Christian (what came to be known as "folk") traditions did indeed survive which happens in all religions since there is always something that came before. If anything, it seems the reverse is true whereby overt aspects of Saturnalia has been _added_ to the Christmas celebration and this somewhat recently.
6:48 Why can you not talk about St. Nicholas's influence on the Russian orthodox church? I have to admit I'm thoroughly intrigued now and desire to gain this knowledge.
@@RyanReevesM I learned so much years ago from your channel. I would get home from work, start cooking and just listen to your lectures. I learned so much. If I had more $$ right now I'd donate. Keep up the great work.
How does all this fit with C.S. Lewis use of Jovial themes? Lewis felt the need to use Santa/Father Christmas. I am curious what influence Jupiter had on clement moore
The 1552 BCP kept the season of Advent which is a very pennitential season. Was the Anglican Church trying to stomp down the partying during this seasom or in general?
Absolutely. They want to keep it about Jesus and liked Advent (even though they were pretty restrictive about keeping medieval traditions). London was sort of infamous for da parties.
@@RyanReevesM I'm sure the priests and monks of the monasteries enjoyed plenty of beer and fruit cake during the Christmas season as well. Thank you so much for the wonderful lectures. Merry Christmas!
Do you have a video on the early churches' understanding of spiritual gifts? If not that would be amazing. A series of Christian canonization would be great too. Thank you 🙇
Could you please do a video about the origins and rise of Evangelical eschatology? Particularly premillennial dispensationalism? Things in the vein of rapture theology or Revelations/Daniel end times prophecy.
A fellow I know has an ugly Christmas sweater with both Jesus and Saint Nicholas. A friend sacrilegiously said to me: Look at the sweater with two fictional characters. I responded: wrong and wrong! As a new Catholic (converted from Protestantism) it continues to amaze me how effectively the reformers have scrubbed away not just the saints but also the true meanings. Yet our culture celebrates St Patrick’s Day, Saint Valentines Day, all Hallows Eve and yes Christmas with no remembrance of why we do these things.
Just one aspect that you left out: the contributions to theSanta Claus mythology by political cartoonist Thomas Nast in the mid 19th century. It was his drawings that gradually changed the image from the elf like guy to the tall standing jolly old man who lived in the North Pole.
Hey Mr. Reeves. I heard that German Lutherans invented the Christmas Tree by combining the Paradise Tree with the Christmas Pyramid, but now I'm hearing that Catholics invented it when they adopted the evergreen after the story of St. Boniface and started hanging wafers representing the eucharist from it. Do you know which one came first?
Hi, I enjoyed this summary. The title could us an adjective. "The Secret History...", "The Real History...", "The True History...", something to make it a little less dry.
This is more than just the history of Santa Claus. How do you attract people to a celebration that is already known for its "folklore", such as Christmas ? By embellishing it with all sorts of "bells and whistles" and "words", such as "happy holidays", "Merry Christmas". For example, what does Santa Claus and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer have to do with Jesus so-called birth on December 25th that the Catholic church created ? Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2005 brings to our attention that the "familiar image of Santa Claus is a North American invention of the 19th century, (and) it has ancient European roots and continues to influence the celebration of Christmas throughout the world. The popular image of Santa Claus developed from literary descriptions by (American) novelist Washington Irving (1783-1859) and poet Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) and the fanciful drawings of illustrator Thomas Nast (1840-1902)." The modern concept of Christmas, with Santa Claus being the hefty fellow, was embellished by Coca-Cola in 1931 and Rudolph, the ninth reindeer, with a red and shiny nose, was invented in 1939 by an advertising writer for the Montgomery Ward Company. And of the origin of Christmas, an encyclopedia states: "Historians are unsure exactly when Christians first began celebrating the Nativity of Christ. However, most scholars believe that Christmas originated in the 4th century as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. Before the introduction of Christmas, each year beginning on December 17 Romans honored Saturn, the ancient god of agriculture, in a festival called Saturnalia." "This festival lasted for seven days and included the winter solstice, which usually occurred around December 25 on the ancient Julian calendar. During Saturnalia the Romans feasted, postponed all business and warfare, exchanged gifts, and temporarily freed their slaves. Many Romans also celebrated the lengthening of daylight following the winter solstice by participating in rituals to glorify Mithra, the ancient Persian god of light" on December 25.(Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2005) So, Christmas is NOT based on the Bible, but rather an absorption of pagan Rome's celebrations of Saturnalia (that ran from Dec 17-24 and whereby all business and warfare was postponed, gifts were exchanged, and slaves were temporarily freed) and the birthday of the Persian god of light Mithra on December 25, called Natalis Solis Invicti or "birthday of the invincible sun", and that was altered to "birthday of the invincible Son", by the Catholic church.(Note: the word "catholic" means "all-embracing, all-inclusive", so that the Catholic church embraced Rome's pagan festivals of Saturnalia and Mithra, Christianizing them and renaming them as "Christmas") How many who call themselves "Christian" have carefully examined Jesus birth ? For example, how many have looked in detail at Luke 2, that shows shepherds were "living out of doors and keeping watch in the night over their flocks" (Luke 2:8), showing the weather to be mild and comfortable and not during the cold and rainy weather of December ?(see Ezra 10:9 and Jer 36:22) How many who call themselves "Christian" have come to recognize that Jesus death was far more important than his birth (see Ecc 7:1 that says that the day of death is "better" than the day of birth), establishing that true Christians were to observe the day of his death that corresponded to Nisan 14 of the Jewish calendar as Jesus commanded ?(Ex 12:6, 14; 13:3, 4; Luke 22:19, 20; 1 Cor 11:23-26) How many who profess to be Christian are diligent in applying what the apostle Paul wrote at 2 Corinthians 6:14, 17, 18: "For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have ? Or what sharing does light (of Bible truth) have with darkness (of falsehoods and lies, such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Mother's day, Father's Day, Memorial day, etc) ?..........Therefore, get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah (God's name, see Isa 12:2, KJV), ‘and QUIT touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take you in. And I will become a father to you, and you will become sons and daughters to me,’ says Jehovah, the Almighty.” ?
Manufactured "controversy", as usual. If you can dress up like some version of "Santa', then you can dress up as "Black Pete." (Or however it's spelled.) You'd think it would be more "problematic" to eliminate him from the story, entirely. Y'know, like they did to Aunt Jemima. People need to grow up. Anyway, this was great fun! If you are ever bored, I'd love to hear the Russian strand of the story.
,, father Christmas must be analogy of st Joseph, in traditional Christmas performances fir children. It had to be dressed in red as were dressed the rich Jews for festive in ancient times. But the person who "climbed" through the chimneys came much later than St Nicolas, who never was dressed in red or even in crossed robe . The most famous st . Nicolas was dressed as a Franciscan monk at the first time . There are similar images on the most ancient icons. But at time when reformation had began to persecute catholic priests , there also was a bishop by name Nicolas that recommended to build rooms for confession at home with a way to escape if it was dangerous, and sometimes this way was lead trough the chimney
The problem with Western scholars saying we do not know the date when Jesus was born is that they do not study the Eastern Fathers. There is a homily by Saint John Chrysostom where he justifies the date of December 25th as being just and biblical. There is also a record that shows that Cyril of Jerusalem asked Poe Julius I to look up the archives and tell him the exact date of Jesus's birth. Julius responded with December 25th.
No. The best version of Robin Hood is Mel Brooks classic, Robin Hood Men In Tights. No, you can't change my mind on that fact either. Just accept you're wrong and move on.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and yours, btw. 😊
Agreed, there's no discussion warranted unless men wear tights.
Agreed
"Because unlike some OTHER Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent..."
tight TIGHT tights
😡😡😡😡 You Forgot Finland where Santas Town is in Rovanniemi.
Oh boy 530am time for a highly detailed and interesting lecture about the Church
nobody's twisting your arm.
Your history lessons are pure gold. Amazing stuff you’ve produced over the years.
You are a wonderful man for doing this. Please keep it up.
I don’t think Ryan realizes what he has here. People love his style and presentation. It is like lightning in a bottle for UA-cam.
Thank you, Ryan. Once again your videos prove to be a great joy and blessing.
Grace to you in the celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
8:40 Not only does Sinterklaas bring a switch for naughty kids (according to family legend one of my uncles actually did this to his kids once), the really bad ones are put in Piet's sack and taken away. This was always a source of hilarity for children if Sint and Piet showed up somewhere and asked if a particular kid had been nice and they would be met with cries of "In the bag! In the bag!"
That's both hilarious and kinda terrifying. LOL!
Hey brother, I’m sure you’ve been asked before, but could you do a video or lecture series on Brother Lawrence and his impact?
Thank you again!
I wish more people would learn history from you. Our world would be a better informed and wiser place.
Best version of Robin Hood is the 1938 version featuring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland and the best version of A Christmas Carol is the Alastair Sim film 1951. Merry Christmas to one and all!
Another great video that I didn't know I needed until I heard it. Your catalog of work is one that I look forward to showing my kids as they get older. Thank you for all your effort and dedication to the truth, God bless.
Been watching you since I was 17 (24 now) and so glad you're back with new videos!!
I've enjoyed your work for years now going back to to heresies, Jan Huss, Luther and much more. Great to see you back.
Thank you for another awesome video. You are incredible! Sending you many blessings and best wishes for a very merry Christmas and happy new year. Peace from the blind guy!
Was “the night before Christmas” originally meant to refer to December 5th? I don’t think it’s mentioned when the transition to the holiday being on the 25th first happened
Great question. Depends on country initially. So Germany and a few others they make that move quickly with the Christ Child thing. In New York they are celebrating St Nicholas’ day but when they invent the new modern Santa Claus stories they make it Christmas Eve.
Your content is a joy to watch and absorb. A shining light of well researched knowledge amongst all the cacophony of bells and whistles that choke the web.
All the best for the festive season and for 2024. I eagerly await more.
Excellent! Well balanced and factual! Thank you!
Excellent research! Thank you for your hard work!
Merry Christmas. Love your videos!
Just discovered your channel. It's fantastic. Just watched this Santa clause one and your first Viking one. Looking forward to watching more! Thank you ❤
Thanks much Mr. Reeves... Merry Christmas, I hope you and yours are well.
More awesomeness for the holidays! Thank you! ❤
I would love to see a video from you on the history of Krampus and other holiday foils.
In my own research I came across a fella by the name of Thomas Nast who produced the first image of Santa clause in 1863 and went on in 1866 to produce “The Works of Santa Clause” which contained much of the lore you mentioned and what we now associate with Santa. Another thing I found was that the song “Santa Clause is coming to town” produced in the same time period as the coke ads was one of that factors that led to a fully formed American Christmas tradition
The exclusion of the work of the cartoonist Thomas Nast weakens this history. It makes me question the veracity of the remaining information.
Thomas nast had a representation of Santa as a tiny fat elf, smaller than the naughty list he's reading in said 'works of Santa Claus'. He seems to me to be an intermediary character in the amalgamation of the Santa story between Moore and the final artwork of sundblom. I would say less important to note
@@exospook4400dismissal of all the remaining work and research done for only missing one person's work on the subject matter is a rather harsh dismissal given the rest of the good evidence presented. Through my own research I've found much of the same influences in play and haven't found any reason to doubt this information. Rather than rejection of remaining information based on one missed piece wouldn't you rather do some of your own research to test the 'veracity' of the work?
Great video thank you! One minor thing, though, my understanding is that the link between Christmas and Saturnalia is likely overstated (with maybe some cross-pollination re: specific traditions) and that 25th December was identified due to an older tradition that calculated the date of someone's death based on the date of their conception. Can you speak to this at all?
At the very start of the video he says “there’s almost no connection between the practice of Christmas and Saturnalia”…or are you saying there’s more connection than what he’s representing (which he says scholars would not agree with)? Regarding your question on the nativity, sounds like a topic for a separate video.
Would love if you could pick up where you left off with the church history series. Tracing the modern church through the Jesus culture movement and the emergent church.
That sounds fun. Great suggestion
Yes please!
@@RyanReevesM Yes please!
@@RyanReevesM
Glad you are back. I first saw your videos in 2016. Have you considered doing a series on American based Christianity such as JW, LDS and or 7 day Adventism?
👍
@Ryan Reeves, this was good man. And thanks for posting sources !!
What about Thomas Nast, J.C. Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell, all of whom pretty much created the look of Santa prior to Haddon Sundblom? History doesn't happen at stops in time--it is ongoing even when historians aren't noticing. I'm sure it is hard to explore all of Santa in 26 minutes. But there is a lot here that was left out.
I just love the idea of Santa decking Arius at Nicea.
Those Arians are hard-headed.
I can only imagine how obnoxious and arrogant Arius was. He probably deserved it🖐️
Thanks for this Ryan, very historical and informative. Could you please do one on the origins of Easter? The historically inaccurate narrative that it was a pagan holiday has become has become mainstream, even among Christians.
Hello Ryan. ? Will you be posting new videos ? Miss your content, thx
@@endoftheagereality // I'll be back soon 😊
Fascinating video. I enjoyed that it gave this cozy feeling as well how apropos. Indeed it seems while having the kernel of European winter season traditions, Santa Clause is a product of modernity and forming new traditions for a relatively nascent culture in America. Right down to the iconic imagery coming from commercialization.
i live near a large dutch community in canada and the black students at my school kept trying to cancel the dutch kids for dressing like black peter 🤣
I have been waiting for this.
Thank you.
Good explanation! I enjoy your history lessons. 😊
Thank you! Consistently excellent and easy to follow along.
Thomas Nast also had an important role in the image of Santa Claus as a jolly fat man given how widely his cartoons were published. Many late 19th century newspapers also contributed to the lore around Santa over time like the fact that he lived at the North Pole or had a wife.
Totally true. Also the letters from kids to Santa or asking if he’s real were published in papers. Lot of cool stuff didn’t make it in the video!
Qui Bono Merchant?
Im not quite finished with the video yet, but are you going to mention how Gandalf is Father Christmas??? 100% BELIEVE!
"Modern Turkey" in stead of "The Byzantine Empire" sounds a bit odd in this story. The oldest reference to "Black Pete" in the Netherlands is found in the works of a school teacher from around 1850. In other European countries, Saint Nicholas was then still travelling with a devil (Krampus) as companion.
I took your class at Kairos
I remember going over this topic . It sure did help further my knowledge. Hope things are going well blessings 🙏🏻
Good video, will watch it again, the many changing faces of Santa 🎅, ... where will we be in 100 years time?
Timely!
Thank you, professor!
Superb! Bless you brother. Thank you.
Great work, thank you, Happy Christmas.
That was very informative. Over here in the UK some of us tend to cling to the name Father Christmas as opposed to Santa Claus but he really has no separate identity.
Merry Christmas. God bless you & yours Ryan.
I live in the former Soviet Union where they traditionally have Father Winter, or Ded Moroz who comes on New Year's Day. But due to Americanization you're now seeing more and more of the Coke-a-cola Santa replace Ded Moroz.
It's fascinating to see how many separate, older traditions have influenced our modern Christmas, some more than others. The more negative figures have mostly fallen by the wayside (although you do still have such more negative figures as Krampus, Knecht Rupprecht, or Frau Holle in some areas here in Germany, for instance.) We've kept the positives of the Christmas spirit, generosity, gift giving, celebrations, feasting and fun, that are so very necessary to get us through the dark, cold midwinter. I love the Christmas season, and wouldn't miss it for the world. ❤🎁🥂🎄🥳
Thank you Ryan something to think about.
so no more RR? No more videos? Sad. And it all did not come to a head :(….
Ryan, great research once again. It's a pleasure to share your videos on social media.
Waiting for the history of Christmas itself 🎄✝️🙏🎅🏻
I love that you go for quality over quantity with your channel but I think we're due for a new video. Some more content on religious art like your Rembrandt video would be great. Would also love to hear you get into the relationship between some classical composers and religion as well.
@@therevolvingmonk Soon
Another idea Dr. Reeves for a video is about The Shroud of Turin . Probably you can give us more Historical Context of this particular piece of history.
Merry Christmas!
Dear Ryan , relative, relatable research. Refreshing in recognizing reality from rumoured ramblings. ( Hmmmm....) wRapped with red ribbons of rationality.
Wrapped*
Really regret ruining radically rhetorical rants. 😢
I did know most of these little facts about Saint Nick already, but another one, which hasnt been mentioned is that the 8 reindeers and Santa's sleigh is based on odins 8 legged horse pulling his sleigh through the sky on Yuletide?? Also wassailing was the original pagan version of carol singing
Like this song, (there are several more verses)? Sometimes people sing caroling instead of wassailing.
"Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wand'ring
So fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God send you a Happy New Year."
Three different Church Fathers calculated December 25 as Christ's birthday, and they did it from Scripture. It has to do with the timing of Zechariah's service as priest in Luke chapter 1.
There isn't any evidence that it had anything to do with Saturnalia.
I just had this chat with my 12 year old daughter.
Our Santa doesnt have a naughty and nice list...everyone is on the naughty list. Santa gives because Christ gave to him. His giving is his response to the Gospel.
You're right to wrap up, Santa is very malleable.
Sounds like Santa is reformed lol
Come back please
I’d be VERY interested analyzing the representation of Santa Claus in advertisements. Well done , Ryan 👏🏽
Thanks Dr. Ryan. Any books to cite for further reading? Asking for a friend…
Drawing a straight line from cocaine (in Coca-Cola) to modern Santa is, chef’s kiss 👨🍳 💋
There is no connection between Saturnalia and the original Christmas i.e. the mass celebrating the birth of Christ (except for the date) but aspects of the Saturnalian festival continued to be practiced. I agree that Christmas didn't evolve out of Saturnalia or some Norse tradition but in the popular celebrations of Christian holidays, pre-Christian (what came to be known as "folk") traditions did indeed survive which happens in all religions since there is always something that came before.
If anything, it seems the reverse is true whereby overt aspects of Saturnalia has been _added_ to the Christmas celebration and this somewhat recently.
Hello, are you planning to do easter history like these last couple?
6:48
Why can you not talk about St. Nicholas's influence on the Russian orthodox church? I have to admit I'm thoroughly intrigued now and desire to gain this knowledge.
You restarted your channel, don’t leave us hanging Dr Reeves
Just needed a moment. On my way back
@@RyanReevesM I learned so much years ago from your channel. I would get home from work, start cooking and just listen to your lectures. I learned so much. If I had more $$ right now I'd donate. Keep up the great work.
How does all this fit with C.S. Lewis use of Jovial themes? Lewis felt the need to use Santa/Father Christmas. I am curious what influence Jupiter had on clement moore
The 1552 BCP kept the season of Advent which is a very pennitential season. Was the Anglican Church trying to stomp down the partying during this seasom or in general?
Absolutely. They want to keep it about Jesus and liked Advent (even though they were pretty restrictive about keeping medieval traditions). London was sort of infamous for da parties.
@@RyanReevesM I'm sure the priests and monks of the monasteries enjoyed plenty of beer and fruit cake during the Christmas season as well.
Thank you so much for the wonderful lectures. Merry Christmas!
Do you have a video on the early churches' understanding of spiritual gifts? If not that would be amazing. A series of Christian canonization would be great too. Thank you 🙇
The people demand more Dr. Reeves videos!
Hey Ryan, do you still teach at Gordon-Conwell?
Could you please do a video about the origins and rise of Evangelical eschatology? Particularly premillennial dispensationalism? Things in the vein of rapture theology or Revelations/Daniel end times prophecy.
16:42 an impecable bar
Holidays in English language actually originates from 'Holy Days,' thus 'Happy holidays,' is not so far off from the gospel.
Very interesting.
A fellow I know has an ugly Christmas sweater with both Jesus and Saint Nicholas. A friend sacrilegiously said to me: Look at the sweater with two fictional characters. I responded: wrong and wrong! As a new Catholic (converted from Protestantism) it continues to amaze me how effectively the reformers have scrubbed away not just the saints but also the true meanings. Yet our culture celebrates St Patrick’s Day, Saint Valentines Day, all Hallows Eve and yes Christmas with no remembrance of why we do these things.
Just one aspect that you left out: the contributions to theSanta Claus mythology by political cartoonist Thomas Nast in the mid 19th century. It was his drawings that gradually changed the image from the elf like guy to the tall standing jolly old man who lived in the North Pole.
Great videos
Great video. Although your thumbnail of Santa Claus looks strangely reminiscent of Daniel Wallace.
Where are you man???
Dr./Mr. Reeves. Are you still at Gordon Cromwell?
Hey Mr. Reeves. I heard that German Lutherans invented the Christmas Tree by combining the Paradise Tree with the Christmas Pyramid, but now I'm hearing that Catholics invented it when they adopted the evergreen after the story of St. Boniface and started hanging wafers representing the eucharist from it.
Do you know which one came first?
The chicken
Great video
I sent that to the men in our church, thank you
OH OH! I may have learned something. I'm scared...Hold Me!
🙂
Thank you!
Hi, I enjoyed this summary. The title could us an adjective. "The Secret History...", "The Real History...", "The True History...", something to make it a little less dry.
Those are usually used in clickbait titles. Also "It will shock you."
Mr Beet recomended this channel.
If any one can get of hold of Dr brant pitre christmas explanation ... do please explain
One can only hope that maybe the one in the 3RD and 4TH centuries lives on in spirit and more.
Awesome.
FishermensCorner sent me here!
This was interesting.
This is more than just the history of Santa Claus. How do you attract people to a celebration that is already known for its "folklore", such as Christmas ? By embellishing it with all sorts of "bells and whistles" and "words", such as "happy holidays", "Merry Christmas". For example, what does Santa Claus and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer have to do with Jesus so-called birth on December 25th that the Catholic church created ?
Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2005 brings to our attention that the "familiar image of Santa Claus is a North American invention of the 19th century, (and) it has ancient European roots and continues to influence the celebration of Christmas throughout the world. The popular image of Santa Claus developed from literary descriptions by (American) novelist Washington Irving (1783-1859) and poet Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) and the fanciful drawings of illustrator Thomas Nast (1840-1902)."
The modern concept of Christmas, with Santa Claus being the hefty fellow, was embellished by Coca-Cola in 1931 and Rudolph, the ninth reindeer, with a red and shiny nose, was invented in 1939 by an advertising writer for the Montgomery Ward Company.
And of the origin of Christmas, an encyclopedia states: "Historians are unsure exactly when Christians first began celebrating the Nativity of Christ. However, most scholars believe that Christmas originated in the 4th century as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. Before the introduction of Christmas, each year beginning on December 17 Romans honored Saturn, the ancient god of agriculture, in a festival called Saturnalia."
"This festival lasted for seven days and included the winter solstice, which usually occurred around December 25 on the ancient Julian calendar. During Saturnalia the Romans feasted, postponed all business and warfare, exchanged gifts, and temporarily freed their slaves. Many Romans also celebrated the lengthening of daylight following the winter solstice by participating in rituals to glorify Mithra, the ancient Persian god of light" on December 25.(Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2005)
So, Christmas is NOT based on the Bible, but rather an absorption of pagan Rome's celebrations of Saturnalia (that ran from Dec 17-24 and whereby all business and warfare was postponed, gifts were exchanged, and slaves were temporarily freed) and the birthday of the Persian god of light Mithra on December 25, called Natalis Solis Invicti or "birthday of the invincible sun", and that was altered to "birthday of the invincible Son", by the Catholic church.(Note: the word "catholic" means "all-embracing, all-inclusive", so that the Catholic church embraced Rome's pagan festivals of Saturnalia and Mithra, Christianizing them and renaming them as "Christmas")
How many who call themselves "Christian" have carefully examined Jesus birth ? For example, how many have looked in detail at Luke 2, that shows shepherds were "living out of doors and keeping watch in the night over their flocks" (Luke 2:8), showing the weather to be mild and comfortable and not during the cold and rainy weather of December ?(see Ezra 10:9 and Jer 36:22)
How many who call themselves "Christian" have come to recognize that Jesus death was far more important than his birth (see Ecc 7:1 that says that the day of death is "better" than the day of birth), establishing that true Christians were to observe the day of his death that corresponded to Nisan 14 of the Jewish calendar as Jesus commanded ?(Ex 12:6, 14; 13:3, 4; Luke 22:19, 20; 1 Cor 11:23-26)
How many who profess to be Christian are diligent in applying what the apostle Paul wrote at 2 Corinthians 6:14, 17, 18: "For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have ? Or what sharing does light (of Bible truth) have with darkness (of falsehoods and lies, such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Mother's day, Father's Day, Memorial day, etc) ?..........Therefore, get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah (God's name, see Isa 12:2, KJV), ‘and QUIT touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take you in. And I will become a father to you, and you will become sons and daughters to me,’ says Jehovah, the Almighty.” ?
If a Christian wants to use this time to honor and reflect on Christ coming into the world then it’s not pagan. Relax
Manufactured "controversy", as usual. If you can dress up like some version of "Santa', then you can dress up as "Black Pete." (Or however it's spelled.) You'd think it would be more "problematic" to eliminate him from the story, entirely. Y'know, like they did to Aunt Jemima. People need to grow up.
Anyway, this was great fun! If you are ever bored, I'd love to hear the Russian strand of the story.
I've seen several conflicting accounts of the origin of O Holy Night. Can you set us straight?
Some of it sounds mythological.
Cheers! Thanks!
Greetings! I like all of your videos and just wanted you to know. Is there anything you want me to pray for you? God Bless you!
I believe in Santa Claus because I am Santa Claus and I'm pleased to meet you.
,, father Christmas must be analogy of st Joseph, in traditional Christmas performances fir children. It had to be dressed in red as were dressed the rich Jews for festive in ancient times. But the person who "climbed" through the chimneys came much later than St Nicolas, who never was dressed in red or even in crossed robe . The most famous st . Nicolas was dressed as a Franciscan monk at the first time . There are similar images on the most ancient icons. But at time when reformation had began to persecute catholic priests , there also was a bishop by name Nicolas that recommended to build rooms for confession at home with a way to escape if it was dangerous, and sometimes this way was lead trough the chimney
The problem with Western scholars saying we do not know the date when Jesus was born is that they do not study the Eastern Fathers. There is a homily by Saint John Chrysostom where he justifies the date of December 25th as being just and biblical. There is also a record that shows that Cyril of Jerusalem asked Poe Julius I to look up the archives and tell him the exact date of Jesus's birth. Julius responded with December 25th.