Who hanged Father Christmas?

 

On Christmas Eve 1951 250 children gathered outside Dijon cathedral to see Father Christmas. But these children would not sit on Santa’s knee to hear a ho-ho-ho and receive a gift, for they had come to see him hanged and burned (in effigy of course). The clergy of the cathedral explained:

 

Representing all the Christian homes of the parish eager to fight against the lie, 250 children, grouped in front of the main entrance to the cathedral of Dijon, burned Father Christmas. It was not an attraction, but a symbolic gesture… A lie cannot wake up religious feelings in a child and is in no way a means of education. May others say and write that they want to make Father Christmas the counterweight of the Bogeyman. For us Christians, the festival of Christmas must remain a celebration of the birth of the Saviour.

 

The Archbishop of Tolouse declared: “Don’t speak to Father Christmas, for the simple reason that he never existed.” The formal position of the French church was:

 

The Father Christmas and the Christmas tree were introduced into the public schools although they are the reminiscence of pagan ceremonies related to the worship of Nature which do not have anything Christian; whereas in the name of outrageous secularism the crib is scrupulously banished from the same schools!

 

However, despite the opposition of the clergy of Dijon, Father Christmas was resurrected by the secular municipal authorities outside the town hall.

 

This event was the subject of an essay, Le père Noël supplicié (Father Christmas tortured) by a young anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss. Lévi-Strauss argued that Christmas represents the glory of life, once one has made peace with the dead. He linked the Christmas celebrations to Roman Saturnalia and celebrations of the solstice.

 

I learned about the sacrifice of Father Christmas this morning from a BBC Radio 4 programme, Something Understood, hosted by Mark Tully, a former Indian correspondent for the BBC. These kinds of programmes are one of the glories of the BBC, whose independence and very existence is threatened by our malevolent, autocratic Conservative government. Our current rulers are just the kind of autocrats who would hang Father Christmas if he disagreed with their politics.