布袋

布袋 Hotei & Santa 聖誕老人

布袋, Hotei is one of 七福神, the Shichi Fukujin, the seven Japanese Shinto-gods of luck. He is the god of happiness, laughter and the wisdom of contentment, and is the patron of the weak and children, fortunetellers and bartenders. 布袋, Hotei is distinguished by his body of generous proportions and round stomach exposed beneath loose robes. His big belly is a symbol of happiness, luck and generosity. On his back, he carries a huge linen bag containing precious things and gifts of good fortune, including children. He also holds 団扇、うちわ • (uchiwa) ←うちは (utifa) an uchiwa, a flat fan of Chinese origin used by ancient chieftains as an emblem of authority and wish-granting. He may sit in an old cart drawn by boys, as the Wagon Priest, and can be compared with मैत्रेय, Maitreya, 彌勒菩薩 the Buddhistic Mi-lo-Fo (彌勒佛).

布袋, Hotei、奥村政信 (1686–1764)、1708年

In Chinese Buddhism, he is known as 布袋 Bùdài, the Loving or Friendly One. He was a 僧侶 wandering 禪 Chan Buddhist monk who lived in the ninth century. At his death between 901 and 903, he recited a poem that revealed to the world that he was in fact the Bodhisattva Maitreya in disguise. Maitreya, Chinese Buddhists believe, is the future Buddha, who will return to the world and bring innumerable individuals to salvation. This concept of hope for the suffering, combined with Budai’s pleasing, human features, made him a most popular Buddhist deity. It was not until the sixteenth century that he was canonized as the sixteenth and last Chinese Bodhisattva.

According to Chinese legend, he carried a sack of candy to give to children. He is sometimes worshipped as a god of good luck and prosperity. He is always represented as very stout, with the breast and upper abdomen exposed to view. His face has a widely grinning or laughing expression, and he is also known as the Laughing Buddha. He stands in the first of the halls of a Buddhist monastery. Because of his constant good nature, he has become the symbol of philosophical contentment.

As soon as Christmas approaches, children around the world have Santa on the brain. They anxiously wonder if they have been overly naughty or sufficiently nice, and eagerly daydream about their potential gift hauls. But exactly how did the jolly, bearded North Pole resident evolve into the cultural icon we know today? Here are some facts about that evolution:

1. He was real, sort of

Folklore may have turned Santa Claus into a toy distributor who mans a sleigh led by eight flying reindeer, but he is actually based, loosely, on a real person. Born around the year 270, St. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra, a town in what is now Turkey. He earned a reputation as an anonymous gift giver, says MSNBC, by paying the dowries of impoverished girls and handing out treats and coins to children — often leaving them in their shoes, set out at night for that very purpose. Since his death, Nicholas has been canonized as the patron saint of children.

2. He's only been 'Santa Claus' for 200 years

A Dutch tradition kept St. Nicholas' story alive in the form of Sinterklaas, a bishop who travelled from house to house to deliver treats to children on the night of Dec. 5. The first anglicizing of the name to Santa Claus was in a story that appeared in a New York City newspaper in 1773.

3. Satire first sent Santa down a chimney

In his satiric 1809 book A History of New York, Washington Irving did away with the characterization of Santa Claus as a "lanky bishop," says Whipps. Instead, Irving described Santa as a portly, bearded man who smokes a pipe. Irving's story also marked the first time Santa slid down the chimney, says the U.K.'s Independent.

4. "Twas the Night Before Christmas" introduced the reindeer

Clement Moore's 1822 poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas — which is now more commonly referred to as "Twas the Night Before Christmas" — was first published anonymously in the Troy, N.Y., Sentinel on Dec. 23, 1823. The 56-line poem introduced and popularized many of Santa's defining characteristics — chiefly, that he drove a sleigh guided by "eight tiny reindeer."

5. Coca-Cola created the modern Mr Claus

When Father Christmas first began showing up in illustrations, he wore many different coloured robes: Green, purple, blue, and brown, among others. Beginning in the late 1800s, it became popular to outfit Santa in a red suit. Artist Louis Prang depicted him that way in a series of Christmas cards in 1885, and The New York Times reported on the red garments in 1927. But the modern image of Santa Claus as the jolly man in the red suit was seared into American pop culture in 1931 when artist Haddon Sundblom illustrated him that way for a widely-circulated campaign for Coca-Cola.

6. The department store Santa is a 120-year-old tradition

In 1890, Massachusetts businessman James Edgar became the first department store Santa, according to The Smoking Jacket. Edgar is credited with coming up with the idea of dressing up in a Santa Claus costume as a marketing tool. Children from all over the state dragged their parents to Edgar's small dry goods store in Brockton, and a tradition was born.

7. Santa was a bachelor until the late 1800s

The first mention of a spouse for Santa was in the 1849 short story A Christmas Legend by James Rees. Over the next several years, the idea of Mrs Claus found its way into several literary publications, like the Yale Literary Magazine and Harper's Magazine. But it wasn't until Katherine Lee Bates' widely-circulated 1889 poem Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride that Santa's wife was popularized. ("Goody" is short for "Goodwife," or "Mrs.")