英语阅读：圣诞老人究竟从哪来

　　圣诞老人究竟从哪来?

　　Where does Santa Claus come from?

　　2010年，圣诞老人(Santa Claus)庆祝了他的一千七百三十岁生日!其原型尼古拉斯(Nicholas)在公元前280年出生于利西亚小国，这个国家现已并入土耳其。

　　The origins of our Christmas traditions are the most fascinating of any holiday. All our favorite activities can be traced back to specific points in history, and knowing how these things came about just makes celebrating Christmas that much more wonderful.

　　圣诞节传统的起源是所有节日中最吸引人的。我们喜欢的任何活动都可以追溯到历史上特定的由来处，并且知道这些活动是如何产生的，这也是为了庆祝更美妙的圣诞节。

　　In 2010, Santa Claus is celebrating his 1,730th birthday! The original Nicholas was born in 280 A.D. in the small country of Lycia, which is now part of modern-day Turkey.

　　2010年，圣诞老人庆祝了他的一千七百三十岁生日!其原型尼古拉斯在公元前280年出生于利西亚小国，这个国家现已并入土耳其。

　　Nicholas became first a priest and then a bishop in the early Christian church. The very first paintings of him show Nicholas wearing the ceremonial robes of a Christian bishop – red trimmed with white. When we see “Santa’s suit” today, we’re seeing those same colors.

　　在早期的____会中尼古拉斯由一名牧师晋升为主教。尼古拉斯的第一幅画像是他穿着基督____的仪式长袍——红色镶有白色的衣服。在如今的圣诞老人装扮中，我们也能看到与其相同的颜色。

　　Nicholas became famous for gift-giving, usually to the poor. In the early fourth century a legend began to spread about Nicholas coming at night to the home of three poor girls who did not have dowries and therefore could not marry their fiancés. While the girls slept, Nicholas left gold coins in their stockings, which were drying by the fire. That’s how our tradition of Santa filling stockings got its start.

　　尼古拉斯因经常给穷人送礼而广受赞誉。早在四世纪，相传尼古拉斯在晚上来到三个穷苦的女孩房前，由于没有嫁妆，她们无法和自己的未婚夫结婚。当女孩们在睡觉时，尼古拉斯把金币放进正在烘烤的袜子里。这正是圣诞老人把礼物放进袜子传统的由来。

　　Santa is known my many names all over the world. He became “Santa Claus”in America because many of the first English colonists to arrive to not celebrate Christmas; as Puritans they felt the holiday was disrespectful to Jesus. But their children saw the children of Dutch settlers receiving gifts from someone called “St. Nicholas.” They thought the gift-giver’s name was “Sinter Klass” and anglicized it further to “Santa Claus.”

　　圣诞老人在世界各地有很多不同的名字。在美国，他是“圣克劳斯”(Santa Claus)，因为第一批到来的英国殖民者大多不庆祝圣诞节;身为清教徒，他们觉得过节是对耶稣的不敬。但是他们的孩子看到荷兰殖民者的孩子收到来自一个名叫“圣尼古拉斯”(St. Nicholas)的礼物。他们认为送礼人的名字是“圣特克劳斯”(SinterKlass)，再将名字英译就是“圣克劳斯”。

　　Many people think Santa’s reindeer were introduced to the holiday in Clement Moore’s wonderful poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” which most of us now call “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Moore wrote about Santa and the eight reindeer in 1822. But in 1809 another great American author named Washington Irving wrote a book titled Diedrich Knickerbocker, and in it he wrote about St. Nicholas delivering presents to children “by flying over the treetops in a wagon.”Clement Moore simply expanded on that previous description.

　　很多人认为在克莱门特•穆尔(Clement Moore)的名诗《圣古拉斯的来访》(A Visit from St. Nicholas)中，将圣诞老人的驯鹿和节日联系了起来，这首诗现在也被称为《圣诞节前夜》(Twas the Night Before Christmas)。穆尔在1822年写了关于圣诞老人和八只驯鹿的故事。然而在1809年，另一名伟大的美国作家华盛顿•欧文(Washington Irving)写了一本书《迪德里奇.尼克巴克》(Diedrich Knickerbocker)，他在书中写道圣尼古拉斯坐着马车飞跃在树梢上给孩子送礼物。克莱门特•穆尔只是对以前故事的描述加以扩展。

　　The first department store Santa appeared in 1841 at J.W.Parkinson’s Dry Goods store in Philadelphia. This Santatried to slide down a chimney to impress the children who were watching, but he got stuck halfway down.

　　1841年，圣诞老人出现在第一百货商店—— 费城的帕金森干货商场(J.W. Parkinson’s Dry Goods store in Philadelphia)。圣诞老人试图滑下烟囱，来给正在观看的小孩留下深刻印象，但是他却卡在了那里。

　　During the Civil War, a magazine artist named Thomas Nast began drawing cartoons of Santa as a diversion for readers from the horrors of war. He sketched Santa as living at the North Pole, and having a lot of elves as his assistants. Everyone believed that must be true.

　　内战期间，艺术家托马斯•纳斯特(Thomas Nast)开始创作圣诞老人的漫画，这成为了战争恐怖下人们的娱乐。他勾画出了这样一幅画面——生活在北极的圣诞老人，身边围绕着一群调皮的小精灵助手。此后，每个人都相信有这样一位人物。

　　【(公众号：GDUTCEO)】

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