> ----- Original Message -----
> From: jeffco
> To: waluk@...
> Sent: Friday, December 27, 2002 7:59 AM
> Subject: Re: [Nostratica] Fw: Christmas things
>
>
> Hi Gerry -
>
> Thanks for the card - which, for some inexplicable reason, I

found absolutely mesmerising!

>
> (What, I wonder, would "Happy Christmas", "Santa Claus"

and "reindeer" be in Nostratic?)

>
> Hope you enjoy the holiday too,
>
> Best regards,
>
> Jean Kelly

--- In Nostratica@yahoogroups.com, "Gerry" <waluk@...> wrote:
> Hi Jean,
> I'll post your question to the group and maybe someone knows the
answer.
>
> To all Nostratica folks,
>
> Can anyone help out? The question is: What, I wonder, would "Happy
Christmas", "Santa Claus" and "reindeer" be in Nostratic?
>
> Thanks,
> Gerry
>
>
The reindeer are an American invention, introduced in a supposedly
famous poem in the early 19th century, the title of which escapes me,
but you would probably know it. "Santa Claus" is Dutch Sinter Klaas,
as you probably know, borrowed from the Dutch of Nieuw Amsterdam. The
Dutch still have him; he wears a bishop's outfit. The admixture of
Northern stuff (North Pole, reindeer) to the Catholic Saint St.
Nicolaus was done because someone at some time (in America)
identified him with the Scandinavian "old man of the house", the
spirit of the old or ancestral owner of the house, Sw. tomte, Da
nisse (but cf. Sw. tomtenisse, small "tomte"). He was to be pacified
at yuletide by receiving a bowl of porridge, or he would take revenge
on the cattle by making it sick. He is the ancestor of Santa's little
helpers (in America mythology) in Santa's workshop (another American
addition to the tradition). The tomte or nisse may have been known to
Americans through some of Andersen's fairy tales. Nisse is the
hypochoristic of Niels (< Nicolaus), as Bill from William.

Note the pointy gray or red hat, derived from both St. Nicolaus'
bishop's mitre and the traditional hat of the not-so-Christian
country folk (also known as the Phrygian cap of the French
revolution).

'Tomte' is usually derived from 'tomt' Sw. "plot of land",
Da. "abandonned building", from PIE *dom-peda, (cf. 'toft' "piece of
land"), but perhaps it's from *dom-pot- "master of the house"?

I was wondering if the English tom- of tom-foolery, tom-boy fits in
here?

The Scandinavian for Christmas is 'jul' (as in "yuletide"), of
disputed origin. It has been borrowed into Finnish at two different
times, as 'juhla' "feast" and (later) 'joulo' "Christmas".

The oldest mention of 'jól' mentions that they drank 'jól', thus
celebrated it with drink. It was the time of slaughtering a pig and
feasting, winter solstice.

Torsten