St Nicholas traditions

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Did you do anything special for the feast of St Nicholas today? We always try to do something special but don’t come from a cultural background that has specific traditions - like leaving shoes out overnight.

One year we made turkish delight. 😃 This year it was just chocolate.

Other than going to Mass, are there specific religious traditions, rather than cultural ones?
 
I like to remind people that he punched Arius in the face with Emperor Constantine as witness. People are often shocked that “Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick” would do such a thing. 😃
 
Mrs_Sally said:
Did you do anything special for the feast of St Nicholas today? We always try to do something special but don’t come from a cultural background that has specific traditions - like leaving shoes out overnight.

One year we made turkish delight. 😃 This year it was just chocolate.

Other than going to Mass, are there specific religious traditions, rather than cultural ones?
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👍:D:thumbsup:
 
AlexPetrosPio said:
I like to remind people that he punched Arius in the face with Emperor Constantine as witness. People are often shocked that “Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick” would do such a thing. 😃
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I believe it was more of a slap. It is a wonderful tradition to resurrect, lets go around dressed up as an Eastern bishop and slap an Arian 👍😃
 
On my whiteboard at work it says “The North Pole is a myth; Santa Claus is really from Turkey”. Almost no one was inthe office today, but I’ll let you know if there is a reaction tomorrow.

ConstantineTG, any special traditions for this day in your church? Or do you celebrate St Nick on a different day?
 
When we were little, we’d each put a bowl out on the kitchen table along with our Christmas list. The next morning the lists would be gone and there would be a just few little candies and coins in the bowls.

Once the last of us “outgrew” Santa Claus, we stopped doing this. We had no other particular traditions…

Peace
James
 
We read The Night Before Christmas and The Saint Who Would be Santa Claus last night, and the boys put their church shoes in front of the front door. This morning they found them filled with gold chocolate coins, candy canes, clementines, and walnuts along with two cupcakes and the Charlie Brown Christmas special on DVD. After school they had their cupcakes and watched Charlie Brown.

Eldest found the opened box of candy canes on the table… 😊
 
Mrs_Sally said:
On my whiteboard at work it says “The North Pole is a myth; Santa Claus is really from Turkey”. Almost no one was inthe office today, but I’ll let you know if there is a reaction tomorrow.

ConstantineTG, any special traditions for this day in your church? Or do you celebrate St Nick on a different day?
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We are on Gregorian. But the celebration is this Sunday with a cultural concert.
 
Mrs_Sally said:
Did you do anything special for the feast of St Nicholas today? We always try to do something special but don’t come from a cultural background that has specific traditions - like leaving shoes out overnight.

One year we made turkish delight. 😃 This year it was just chocolate.

Other than going to Mass, are there specific religious traditions, rather than cultural ones?
Click to expand...
We had Divine Liturgy tonight, followed by a potluck. Usually, St. Nick pays a visit and hands out gifts to the children, but our St. Nick was not available this year. St. Nicholas just came in while we were praying and filled the children’s shoes with chocolate coins and balloons. We had a lot of visiting Latins, and Father thanked them for coming out, since it is just an “optional memorial” on the Western calendar. I do think most of the traditions are cultural, though.
 
babochka said:
We had Divine Liturgy tonight, followed by a potluck. Usually, St. Nick pays a visit and hands out gifts to the children, but our St. Nick was not available this year. St. Nicholas just came in while we were praying and filled the children’s shoes with chocolate coins and balloons. We had a lot of visiting Latins, and Father thanked them for coming out, since it is just an “optional memorial” on the Western calendar. I do think most of the traditions are cultural, though.
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OK, my new goal in life is to be a “visiting Latin”. 😃
 
Mrs_Sally said:
OK, my new goal in life is to be a “visiting Latin”. 😃
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🙂 I probably didn’t explain that very well, out of context. On the current western calendar, St. Nicholas Day is an optional memorial. On our calendar, it is a solemn feast. For Slavs, it is also a big deal culturally. We had one woman there, a Roman Rite Slav, who had been to Mass at a local parish at noon. The priest mentioned that he wouldn’t be taking the option to celebrate St. Nicholas. She was so disturbed by his decision that she decided she needed to come to Liturgy again at a church where she knew St. Nicholas would be appreciated.

I believe the FSSP parish in town had a High Mass and party afterward for St. Nicholas Day as well.
 
ConstantineTG said:
I believe it was more of a slap. It is a wonderful tradition to resurrect, lets go around dressed up as an Eastern bishop and slap an Arian 👍😃
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Modern Arians… that would be Mormons?

Disclaimer: I am in no way suggesting or condoning the slapping of Mormons or other modern-day Arians. 😃
 
babochka said:
🙂 I probably didn’t explain that very well, out of context. On the current western calendar, St. Nicholas Day is an optional memorial. On our calendar, it is a solemn feast. For Slavs, it is also a big deal culturally. We had one woman there, a Roman Rite Slav, who had been to Mass at a local parish at noon. The priest mentioned that he wouldn’t be taking the option to celebrate St. Nicholas. She was so disturbed by his decision that she decided she needed to come to Liturgy again at a church where she knew St. Nicholas would be appreciated.

I believe the FSSP parish in town had a High Mass and party afterward for St. Nicholas Day as well.
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I figure that was about what you meant. 👍 I have been to Russian Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Masses/Divine Liturgies, just not in a really, really long time.
 
One Greek Orthodox Church is named St. Nicholas because the founding families were ethnic Greeks from Turkey.:)👍:cool:
 
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