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Pauline Read on Father Christmas was Turkish?
Saint Nicholas of Myra saves three innocents from death
We know him by names such as Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or simply “Santa” and his job is to bring gifts to the homes of good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24th or on his Feast Day, December 6th (Saint Nicholas Day.)
Saint Nicholas was originally portrayed wearing bishop’s robes but today Santa Claus is generally depicted as a plump, jolly, white-bearded man wearing a red coat with white collar and cuffs, white-cuffed red trousers, and black leather belt and boots. This image became popular in the United States and Canada in the 19th century due to the influence of caricaturist and political cartoonist Thomas Nast and has been maintained and reinforced through song, radio, television, and films. In the United Kingdom and Europe, his depiction is often identical to the American Santa, but he is commonly called Father Christmas.
But from where did this figure originate? You would be surprised to know that it was from 4th century Anatolia, now in Turkey. Now before you start getting too excited it turns out that Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (now Demre) in Lycia, Turkey. So, it looks like the inspiration for modern day Father Christmas originated from Turkey but was in fact Greek. I do hope none of you in the south are now going to produce banners proclaiming “Father Christmas is Greek.”
Merry Christmas!
Saint Nicholas of Myra is the primary inspiration for the Christian figure of Santa Claus. He was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (now Demre) in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor, in particular presenting the three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with dowries so that they would not have to become prostitutes. He was very religious from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity. In Europe (more precisely the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Germany) he is still portrayed as a bearded bishop in canonical robes. In 1087, the Italian city of Bari, wanting to enter the profitable pilgrimage industry of the times, mounted an expedition to locate the tomb of the Christian Saint and procure the remains. The reliquary of St. Nicholas was desecrated by Italian sailors and the spoils, including his relics, taken to Bari[8][9] where they are kept to this day. A basilica was constructed the same year to store the loot and the area became a pilgrimage site for the devout, thus justifying the economic cost of the expedition. Saint Nicholas became claimed as a patron saint of many diverse groups, from archers and children to pawnbrokers.[10] He is also the patron saint of both Amsterdam and Moscow.[11]
No Dominic Freeman, we will not produce banners proclaiming “Father Christmas is Greek,” because as you just informed us, he was in fact Turkish! In fact, not only he was Turkish, but his name is a purely Turkish one too. It is a composite name derived from the Turkish words “Nihan” and “kılavuz,” resulting to the Turkish name “Nikhilauz,” from which came the German “Nikolaus” and then the English “Nicholas.”
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Yes!!!!! “Father Christmas IS Turkish!”
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Dominic,I am not aware of the facts, but assuming that you are right Father Christmas originated from Lycia which is geographically located in what is now known as Turkey. However, Turkey did not exist in 4th century nor were any Turkish people anywhere near this part of the world.
It is funny how Turkish people in the absence of anything decent to exhibit themselves steal other peoples achievements and portray then like theirs…..St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, Ephesus ruins, Salamis ruins to name just a few ! I would therefore not be surprised if you actually claimed that Santa Claus was Turkish, at the end of the day stealing is something that you are good at.
But my friend Santa Claus, St. Sophia, Ephesus or Salamis ruins could not have been Turkish simply because at the time Turkish people were nowhere near
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Kyri, if you actually read the article you would have noticed that it says, “it turns out that Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (now Demre) in Lycia, Turkey.” Have you actually seen any Ottoman architecture, because according to the wikipedia, “the Ottomans achieved the highest level architecture in their lands hence or since. They mastered the technique of building vast inner spaces confined by seemingly weightless yet massive domes, and achieving perfect harmony between inner and outer spaces, as well as articulated light and shadow. Islamic religious architecture which until then consisted of simple buildings with extensive decorations, was transformed by the Ottomans through a dynamic architectural vocabulary of vaults, domes, semi domes and columns. The mosque was transformed from being a cramped and dark chamber with arabesque-covered walls into a sanctuary of aesthetic and technical balance, refined elegance and a hint of heavenly transcendence.”
This is a very good example of how a beautifull article can be ruined by extremists. Thats because they only see what they want to see.
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Kyri, you say “I guess nowadays you should occupy countries, kill people, convert churches into barns, change the names of villages, steal homes, destroy civilizations and draw huge flags on mountains to qualify as a non extremist.” I assume you are talking about warmongers of all countries, extremists, nationalists, expansionists… personally I believe that the flag is an embarrassment.
According to you Kyrie, everything belongs to GC at north. Every land, every house every shop even the air we breath. Why do south offer the Social security benefits? Personally I think it shouldn’t. Is that because you like us so much and want to do a favour or is that pecause of political obligations south have put it self in ? (personally I don’t use any of social security benefits from south and I only give my TRNC id on the border)
TC work for you? You said it yoursels, because they are good at what they do. Its quite objective, its business, everybody wins. Truely I would not think you would discriminate them in any ways, otherwise you would not work with them at all.
Milking your economy? No, indeed, supporting your economy. Are you aware of the amount have been spent over south by north. May be for your great economy its not that much but much enough to be taken in account.
May be as a person in your daily life, you are not extremis at all as you sound here. But not for once you had accepted anything wrong about south. You always had excuses for south for anything and everything. On the other hand north being blamed for all, being the Devil. I am sorry but with this attitude, I can not think otherwise.
Would there be any 20 July 74 if there was no bloody Noel starting on 21 December 63, 64, 67 and 15th July 74. But with your attitude, I am sure you would also have some excuses to cover up all those years. After all, for you Cyprus problem had started in 20 July 74.
Just because we can have drinks,dinners and flirt together now, does not necessarily means that we can sleep togeter righy away. If you want to have a plesant conversation you have to respect that you can not aleays keep talking, you need to listen and try to understand me as well. The day south will start to uncover the past in more honest way, that will be the day we will hope for doing something together more enjoyable.
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Wake Up says: “After all, for you Cyprus problem had started in 20 July 74.”
Where did you get that from?
The Cyprus Problem began in 1570 when your murderous forefathers came here uninvited and butchered 20,000 Cypriots on the first day alone! This was followed by 308 years of murders, rapes and oppression, against the Cypriots!
You are the Ottoman remnants on Cyprus, who even to this day (440 years on) are still nothing but a complete nuisance to the indigenous Christian population, so paddle back to wherever the hell you came from and take your Islamo-fascism with you!
If you can’t flow with the current then you should do the honorable thing and return home to Turkey where you can dance with the Hodja on the back of a Camel and then sit on a minaret for all I care!
I don’t want to hear your pitiful complains anymore…
JUST DON’T COME TO CYPRUS!
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Get Real, I think the Ottomans that did those things in 1571/2 are all dead now. I’m sure that you believe that only Greeks were civilised and the rest of the universe was not – you are a seriously disturbed individual. South Cyprus Christian? I though you lot were Communists down there – now don’t get me me started about Communist atrocities
Dominic, yes I do. I might have used my country as an example but of course the same applies in general. It is the law of the jungle. The strong are never the bad guys and can always do as they wish.
Having said that I would like to clarify one thing. I wish that you or your family will never need ours or any other hospital. I was just talking in general and I would never wish you harm just to prove a point.
Wake up, I did not expect so many obviously wrong arguments in one post.
Have I ever said that everything in the north belongs to GC? I think the habit of twisting someone’s words is contagious on this website : ( The majority of what is to be found in the north does belongs to GC, however, and I do not think that anyone can deny it.
The south offers social benefits because it is only you that call it “the south”. In fact it is the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus (with no “south” anywhere in its name) which is the government for the whole of Cyprus and for all Cypriots, including you. So, yes you were right, it is a political obligation of any country to take care of its citizens.
Even though you might not want to claim any social security benefits (neither do I, thank God I do not need to) I am sure that you will suddenly remember our hospitals the moment something goes wrong. Do you have any doubts about this?
Let me now correct you about one thing. You show your “papers” issued by the occupying force in the northern part of the Republic of Cyprus when you cross over to the free part of the island. If you have any doubts about the official status of the north or its papers Google it.
On the other hand I am really glad that you feel safe to come to the south. I thought that you had to stay in the north so that GC do not kill you ! Isn’t this the only argument you have to justify your persistence to live separated? Are you afraid of us or aren’t you? Please make up your minds !
My friend, when I employed them I did not know that they were good. They came to me and they wanted work. I needed people so I employed them. They were good so I kept them and I always treated them like Cypriots. In fact when a GC demanded a pay rise and I thought that his request was justified I gave him more money and on the same day I gave the same pay rise to everyone, GC and TC. Please do not tell me again that I am an extremist because I am not, nor claim that it was just business. At the end of the day I did not have to employ them, nor I had to employ everyone with the same terms of employment. I am just “fair” and I would rather die that have someone in front of me accusing me of taking advantage of them or of their situation. This is why I am so upset with the expats buying GC property in the north (please have a look at other relevant posts I wrote) .….because they just stepped in to take advantage and benefit from other people’s pain and misfortunes.
It is true that TC spend in the south marginally more than what GC spend in the north. However, thousands of TC work in the south, thousands collect benefits from our government and of course they all take that money back to the north. I have no time to check the figures right now but if I remember right the total monetary “benefit” of the north is roughly ten times the “benefit” of the south.
I am sorry but I truly cannot see any wrongdoings of the republic of Cyprus specifically against you. There are a lot of problems, I am frustrated myself about certain things here (including taking property for infrastructure and giving insignificant compensations) but I cannot see anything specifically directed against you. On the contrary our government treats you in a better way that it treats us, admittedly for political reasons. Having said that I know, I state and I admit that a small proportion of my people committed atrocities against your people. Similarly, a small proportion of your people committed atrocities against my people. I do not know who started it and it does not matter. We say you did, you say we did, most likely the British arranged that we start killing each other at the same time (I am sorry Malcolm but this is what released classified documents of your foreign office say). Eventually things got out of hand and we ended where we are now. However, I do not see why we cannot put things behind us, erase green lines, return home and live like Cypriots in Cyprus.
Of course the problem started before 1974 but how sure are you that we started it in 1963? How do you now that TMT did not start it before then? You have your story, we have our story and the truth is somewhere in the middle. I also believe that Turkey had every right to interfere in 1974. Yes, I said it !!! Can you believe it? I said it and it is not the first time, nor the last. However, Turkey should have interfered to re-establish democracy and order, they should have fixed things and not destroy whatever was left.
Personally I believe that Turkey is here for their own strategic reasons. I do not believe that they really care about your welfare and that they just use you as an excuse to be here. In my opinion this is why we will never find solution which is good for all Cypriots…because above all it has to be good for Turkey.
Last but not least if we can have drinks and dinner together, if we can work together and flirt we can also sleep together, metaphorically as well as literally
Get Real, I think that you are a very angry man !
Dominic, where did you see communists in the south? I have never seen a communist in my entire life ! You might have been sarcastic in your comment but I am serious !
The 1571 Ottomans are now dead indeed but so are the 1960 Cypriots (or they are so old that they cannot hold their own dicks to pee, let alone hold a gun).
Eventually we will agree on something. At the end of the day the Ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Ottomans, …etc etc…., the Germans in WW2, the British in America, in Africa …in…in…in….the Americans in Vietnam, in Iraq…in…in….in….the Israelis in Palestine …etc etc…..they were all communists
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Once bitten twice shy.
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The same goes both ways so lets wake up an stop being shy
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Hey Kyri,
I knew there was a reasonable and rational person lurking under all that emotive garbage you threw at me in the other post. Mr Real wanted all the 100,000 armed troops in the south to attack NOW!, and you wanted to shoot me after spitting in my face….
But I see that you can be rational and conciliatory too. You can also speak good sense, and I applaud you for your concession about Turkey’s interference in 1974. I’m not sure your conclusion is correct, though, for many would think that they did fix things, and didn’t really “destroy whatever was left”. The only thing they seemed to destroy was the fighting and killing, for it’s been raining peace for 35 years and counting.
Your reason and rationality seems to have taken a brief break, however, when you casually lump all ex-pats under the one throw-away comment about “..I am so upset with the expats buying GC property in the north..because they just stepped in to take advantage and benefit from other people’s pain and misfortunes.”
I’ll take issue with you on that point, of you’ll permit, because I’m one and can therefore put you straight with regard to motive. The first time I came to Cyprus for a holiday, I travelled all over the island, and simply selected the slopes east of Kyrenia as the most picturesque, attractive and affordable part of Cyprus to live. I also found the people to be more friendly and warm-hearted than those I’d met in the south. I found a lovely four-year-old villa and bought it. All I was told was the land on which it and 13 others like it had been built had been exchanged with the original GC owner for land of a similar size and value in the south, following the 1974 incursion by Turkey. There didn’t seem to be any pain, as there was no house there, and any misfortune seemed to have faded over the ensuing 35 years due to the exchanged land in the south now being valued at some 3 to 5 times the value of the original property in the north.
Again, I applaud your stance, and totally agree with the implication in your letter that it’s time to move on and put the past where it belongs. The one unalterable fact here is that times change and people must do the same, or go under.
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Hi Kyri,
Your post Nr. 11 was well received and reflects the moderate and reasonable GC view, of which I am sure there are many. I am also sure that with more people with views like yours, a satisfactory compromise can be found.
I would take you up on one point about communists though – isn’t your very own president one?
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