Have you ever wondered why Santa looks and behaves the way he does? Why do cultures all over the World have seemingly different Santa origin stories? Did you know that the prototype for Santa was based on the ‘Dog-Headed’ St. Christopher among several other ancient personalities?
In this episode, Neil Kalia Robinson presents a startling premise; Santa Claus, his elves, gifts bags/seasonal gift giving, naughty or nice lists and many other aspects of the Western Christmas tradition are in fact rooted in India’s ancient Vedic Ramayana tradition.
From Bhakti Ananda Goswami: Thanks to Kalia, Vrn and Elijah for this video, which is a discussion led by Kalia, concerning the many in-common thematic elements found in the Eastern Ramayana and the Mediterranean Judeo-Catholic related traditions associated with Saint Christopher, the CHRIST-Bearer, and confounded later with Saint Nicolas as ‘Santa Claus’.
My main comment would be to give a more non-Indo-centric context to the entire discussion. At one point, both Kalia and Vrn note that elements of the Ramayana can be found everywhere. I assert that these common elements are the common heritage of all Humanity. I do not agree that they all diffused from India or Hinduism. For example, I have studied the story of the Descent into the underworld, that is at the core of the Dionysian, Orphic, Eleusinian and other ‘Mysteries’.
Read the rest of this entry