Last Christmas: Saint Nicholas and a Very Pagan Christmas
Father Christmas, aka Santa Claus, is the commercial and secular face of Christmas—an ancient Christian festival that sought to smother older rites. The Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year, was a perilous and liminal moment, when the forces of darkness returned to the mortal plane. Recast by Christianity as the celebration of a new-born messiah, the winter holy days nevertheless remained entangled with their pagan roots.
The legends of saints such as Nicholas and Lucy merged with those of sorcerers, demons, flying animals, and resurrected corpses to give shape to modern holiday traditions. This illustrated lecture traces the evolution of Christmas and its ringleader, Santa Claus, while exploring flying cats, the demon Krampus, Coca?Cola, and the resurrection of three butchered siblings.
CAPTION FOR IMAGE: Saint Nicholas, Poland, Public Domain.
Join Eric Huang – writer and producer of the Saint Podcast – for a 4-part series that explores Saint Valentine, Saint Sebastian, the tradition of All Saints Day – or Halloween, and Saint Nicholas.
Each talk is scheduled for the feast day or the seasonal time of year when a particular saint or saintly ritual is celebrated or memorialized.
Saint Valentine joins us on February 14; Saint Sebastian is with us for Pride Month in June; All Saints Day aka All Hallow’s Eve, takes centre stage in late October as we take a look at a Halloween-themed Catholic rite: exorcism; and, finally, Saint Nicholas and his demon-helper Krampus join us in December.
In each talk, Eric takes a deep dive into obscure and sometimes controversial details of the saints and the traditions surrounding them. From the origins of Saint Valentine as the patron saint of epilepsy, beekeeping, and the plague to the transformation of middle-aged, patrician Saint Sebastian into a barely legal queer icon, our journey promises to be full of surprises. And, of course, along the way, there is Halloween and Christmas! What do these last two celebrations have to do with saints? Eric will reveal all.
Each lecture is available as a one-time purchase, or join Eric for all four talks at a discount price (you know you want to).
Bio:
Eric Huang studied palaeontology. Unfortunately, field work didn’t live up to his Jurassic Park dreams, so he worked as a tour guide at Universal Studios until landing a job as secretary to the Creative Director of Disney Publishing, inadvertently launching a career in books.
Today, Eric is the creator of the Saint Podcast, an exploration of saints’ stories. He’s the author of the children’s fantasy series, Guardians of the New Moon, that reimagines East Asian legends. And he teaches at City, University of London’ Masters in Publishing course.
Eric lives in London with his boyfriend Brian and their cat McNulty.
Curated by Marguerite Johnson
Hosted by:
Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for four weeks the next day
