Medieval Origins of Santa Claus: St. Nicholas

<p>In many parts of Europe, before Christmas comes, you have first to celebrate one of the medieval period's favourite saints - Saint Nicholas of Myra.&nbsp;It's his legend and celebration that eventually transformed into our own Santa Claus.&nbsp;St Nicolas’s commemoration was a great excuse for medieval people to let down their hair and celebrate while still in the much more sombre and reflective period of Advent.</p><br><p>In this episode of <em>Gone Medieval</em>, Dr. Eleanor Janega is joined by experiential archaeologist Caroline Nickolay.&nbsp;They discuss how St. Nicholas’ life has been embellished and commemorated from the late antique period until today and how a relatively unremarkable bishop managed to give birth to the party event of the festive season.</p><br><p>This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.</p><br><p><strong>Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code MEDIEVAL - sign up </strong><a href="https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>here</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p><br><p><strong>You can take part in our listener survey&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6FFT7MK" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>here</u></a>.</p> <hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>