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Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Spanking Fetish, and Other Famous People’s Unexpected Behavior

Khalid Elhassan August 31, 2024 31 min

Unexpected - Jean-Jacques Rousseau — Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Wikimedia

2. Santa’s Origin

Unexpected - Santa Claus and the real Saint Nick — Santa Claus and the real Saint Nick. Imgur

The modern Santa Claus is a product of inputs from the folklore of various cultures. The biggest single figure behind Santa is probably Saint Nicholas of Myra, also known as Nicholas of Bari (270 – 342 AD). One of the most popular minor saints of both the Western and Eastern churches, he was a generous man known for his gifts. He became associated with Christmas, and the tradition of gifts given that day. Nicholas was born into wealth, and used his riches to help those less fortunate. He traveled around, went on pilgrimage to the Holy Lands, and became associated with various good deeds, such as saving three innocent soldiers from wrongful execution.

Numerous miracles were attributed to Saint Nicholas. He reportedly calmed the sea, chopped down a demonic tree, and resurrected three kids who had been murdered by a butcher and pickled in brine for sale as pork during a famine. No wonder he became the patron saint of children. So Saint Nick was a good guy, and a worthy foundational figure upon whom to build the legend of the lovable and kindly Santa. However, Nicholas was not nice all the time. As seen below, he was not above settling debates by beating up those with whom he disagreed.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.