‘TURKISH’ SANTA CLAUS

The veneration of saints is an important aspect of Turkish folk Islam. The most common themes in folk tales and fables are stories about righteous figures and saints and the miracles they have wrought. Researchers believe that several factors have influenced the popularity of these stories, including the ideas of Sufism, which is a mystical and less dogmatic interpretation of Islam; the proximity to Balkan and Anatolian peoples who revered dozens, if not hundreds, of saints; and the Turkic ancestor cult. It is no coincidence that in Turkish menkabe legends, saints are invariably referred to as baba (father) and dede (grandfather).

In Turkey, stories about Noel Baba range from how he calmed a storm at sea and miraculously filled grain storages during a year of famine to how he helped end a plague epidemic. Perhaps the most famous story about Saint Nicholas, also known to Turks, is how he threw small bags of gold into the window of a poor man’s house at night so that his daughters could have dowries and get married. It’s worth pausing here to note that ancient writers managed to merge two different Saint Nicholases into one figure. These saints lived in Lycia, in the southwest of modern-day Turkey, nearly two centuries apart—from the third to the fourth and in the sixth centuries.

Today, Lycia, the region where both Saint Nicholases lived, is located near the heart of Turkey’s beach resort area. In the town of Demre, historically known as Myra of Lycia, stands a basilica officially named the Noel Baba Kilisesi (Noel Baba Church). There is also a museum of the same name at the same site, and notably, this church was never converted into a mosque.

Here, visitors can also see a statue of Saint Nicholas created by Russian sculptor Grigory Pototsky. From the year 2000, it stood in the center of the town, but in 2005, the authorities decided to remove it, likely because it appeared too iconographic and overtly Christian. The new mayor of Demre, Süleyman Topçu, ordered the statue to be moved to the museum and replaced it with a sculpture of Santa Claus resembling the Coca-Cola advertisement—a jolly, plump man in a red coat carrying a sack of gifts.

According to Topçu and some Turkish public figures, this decision had nothing to do with xenophobia or hostility toward Christianity. Instead, the Western Santa was seen as a more globally recognizable image capable of attracting more tourists. However, the new statue failed to win over Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ertuğrul Günay. He found the depiction of Santa in a fur coat with reindeer rather odd against the backdrop of the sunny Mediterranean coast.

And so, in 2008, Santa was removed and replaced by a third statue—this time intended to represent the ‘authentic Lycian saint’. The idea was to make Noel Baba resemble a local resident—and it worked. His face, headgear, and clothing leave no doubt that this is an inhabitant of the Turkish Mediterranean region. Noel Baba is depicted holding a little girl's hand, with a boy sitting on his shoulder—the happy father of a little Turkish family!

Of course, the secular New Year and its celebration are relatively new phenomena in Turkey. The country only adopted the Gregorian calendariThe Gregorian calendar is used in most countries and states around the world. The count begins from the conventional birth of Christ (known as Anno Domini), a new year starts on 1 January each year, the year has 365 days and twelve months, and every four years is a leap year. Until 1926, Turkey used the Islamic calendar based on the Hijra. in 1926, and 1 January became a public holiday as recently as 1981.

Moreover, the growing influence of conservative Islam in Turkish politics over the past few decades has not always embraced foreign festivities, especially the veneration of Christian saints. Despite this, Noel Baba has not lost his standing. Before setting out to sea, fishermen along Turkey's southern coast often toss small wooden figures of him into the water for good luck, and children believe that on New Year's Eve, this kind wizard fulfills their wishes.

Meanwhile, in 2005, the first translation of Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien, published as Letters from Noel Baba, was published in Turkey. The book was translated by Leyla Roksan Çağlar, who was only sixteen years old at the time. In her own words, she wanted to make the text ‘as Turkish as possible’iHastürkoğlu, G. ‘Translating culture in children’s literature: A case study on the Turkish translation of Letters from Father Christmas. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies’, 16(2), 729–37.. For example, the children's names to whom Father Christmas (whom, as you might have guessed, is called Noel Baba in the translation) writes letters were partially changed to Turkish equivalents: John, for instance, became Can (a common Turkish name).

Additionally, the Christmas treats mentioned in the text, such as figgy pudding, were replaced with more familiar Turkish sweets, like muhallebiiMuhallebi is a milk pudding commonly made with rice, sugar, milk and either rice flour, starch or semolina. and tatlı (dessert). In essence, the translator attempted to remove the distance between young readers and Noel Baba from English literature—‘Turkifying’ him so to speak. This version of the Christmas symbol is one that modern Turkey is happy to embrace: a kind family man and a well-recognized icon of global culture.