Today is Saint
Nicholas Day, the day when we commemorate the 4th-Century bishop of
Myra, one of the participants of the Council of Nicaea. This is actually the
day he died, which makes a bit of a change for celebrations.
(Although his death is
kind of a thing; at least his corpse was. Because about 600 years after he
died, Italian merchants robbed his grave in Myra and took his body to Bari. I’m
not touching the issues around what possesses a group of people to do that kind
of stuff and expect to remain in God’s favor.)
He’s the patron of
sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers
and students. I’m trying to think of what commonalities connect those groups,
but without luck.
We of course have
conflated Saint Nicholas with major gift giving (which might explain the
children, merchants and pawnbrokers; possibly the repentant thieves, too), via
the Dutch version of his name, Sinterklaas. And today is the day
(instead of the 25th) when children in a number of countries get
their gifts (if they’ve been good; if they’ve been naughty, they get coal or
switches, depending on the local custom; you might even be eaten
by a giant cat).
To honor the good
bishop, we’re having the “Little Saint Nick”. I must confess that I don’t find
this the best example of the Beach Boys’ oeuvre, but I just feel like changing
it up this year.
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