Birthday of the wizard: interesting facts about Santa Claus

Santa Claus is so beloved by children and adults around the world for the magic he brings to every home. Traditionally he gives children presents and wishes them a Happy New Year, but Santa Claus also has his own personal holiday. Today is his birthday. And this is what is remarkable about the grandfather in a long fur coat:

Age

Different sources mention different ages of Santa Claus. If we take into account the fairy tale (not a cartoon, but a literary source) of Vladimir Odoevsky's "Moroz Ivanovich", then we can conclude that the main character of this text is 181 years old. But there are other data. In Russia, Ded Moroz was often identified with St. Nicholas. If we focus on this fact, then the New Year's wizard is 1751 years old. There is a third version - the "official" Santa Claus, living in Veliky Ustyug, more than two thousand years old.

Snow Maiden

Those who have read the play of the same name by A. Ostrovsky. Those who have read Ostrovsky's play of the same name have probably wondered many times whether the young Snow Maiden is actually our hero's granddaughter (as we used to think) or daughter (as it is written in the play). There is an opinion that the girl in the blue coat is not related to Santa Claus at all - she just helps him to congratulate children and give them presents, being his granddaughter by age.

Family status

A number of folklore works mention the wife of Santa Claus - Ice Baba. Her image was formed at a time when Santa Claus was perceived differently - not as a good wizard, but as an evil spirit. The role of the Ice Baba was to scare people with cold and make ice. But Grandpa Frost, who lives in the Moscow estate, once admitted to journalists that he really has a wife - Metelitsa. She is not evil at all. "She rarely sits in the little house, she has a lot of work, large, broad responsibilities. Here today as a blizzard - that's thanks to her," he said then.

The color of the coat

On postcards and in various works of art, Ded Moroz is depicted in coats of different colors. On postcards of the pre-revolutionary period, Grandpa has a white coat, in the fairy tale "Morozko" and the above-mentioned cartoon "Moroz Ivanovich" - blue, and, for example, in the children's movie "The New Year Adventures of Masha and Vitya" (1975) - red. In the red coat of the New Year's magician began to "dress" in connection with the fact that this is the main color of the USSR. But you should not think that the color of Santa Claus' costume is also due to the association with his country. Everything is much simpler - Santa began to dress in red after the release of the thematic advertising of Coca Cola.