Is there a Santa Claus?
(Source: SWR1 2009)
1897 wrote the eight year old Virginia O'Hanlon a letter with this important issue for them as the
New York Sun .
course, they believed in Santa Claus, he had never disappointed her: "When they said less fortunate little boys and girls, there were no Santa Claus, doubts were growing within me. I asked my father, and he was evasive on this topic. It was customary in our family, with uncertainty about the pronunciation of a word or doubts about the historical facts, question and write Antwort'-column of the Sun. Father always said, 'If it's in the Sun, it is also true' - and that ended any dispute. I'm just going to write to the Sun and find out the real truth, 'I said to my father. He said, 'Kick off, Virginia. I'm sure the Sun is Give you the right answer, as it always does' "(Virginia O'Hanlon, 36 years after the first publication of her letter).
Virginia's letter was forwarded to the editor Francis Church, son of a Baptist pastor and for 20 years editor of the Sun . With particularly sensitive issues, he was a comment writers familiar and so he was truthful to the letter of the eight years of Virginia and "free answer of hypocrisy. "He wrote one of the most remarkable comments the newspaper story.
1949 set the New York Sun . Until that time, Virginia's letter and Francis were read Church's response from 1897 every year at Christmas time on the front page of the newspaper:
"I am 8 years old to say some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus Papa says what it says in the Sun is always true Please tell me. Is there ? A Santa Claus "
The matter was the chief editor Francis Church so important that he said himself - on the front page of the Sun :
" Virginia, your little friends can not be right. They believe that it can not give what they can not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds is small, whether he is an adult or a child. In space, it disappears like a tiny insect. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion. Because it all is, can our life be beautiful and serene. How dreary would be the world if there is no Santa Claus would be! It then would be no Virginia, no faith, no poetry - nothing that made life bearable. Enjoyment, except in sense and sight would be left. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. There is a Santa Claus, otherwise you could not even believe in fairies. Certainly, you might get your papa to hire people on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus. And none of them in Santa Claus would get to face - what would that prove? No man sees him like that. This proves nothing. The most important things remain mostly invisible. The elves, for example, when they dance on the lawn. Nevertheless, they exist. to imagine all the wonders - let alone to see them - which can not be the smartest in the world. What you see also, you never see everything. You can leave a kaleidoscope of color and look for the most beautiful figures. You will find some colorful pieces, nothing more. Why? Because there is a veil covering the unseen world, a veil, not even the violence could tear apart the world. Only faith, poetry and love it can ventilate. Then the beauty and glory will be seen behind it. "Is it true?" You can ask. Virginia, there is nothing in the world nothing else real and abiding. Santa Claus lives, and he will live forever. Even ten times ten thousand Years he will be there to meet children like you and every heart of childhood.
Merry Christmas, Virginia. Your Francis Church. "
The matter was the chief editor Francis Church so important that he said himself - on the front page of the Sun :
" Virginia, your little friends can not be right. They believe that it can not give what they can not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds is small, whether he is an adult or a child. In space, it disappears like a tiny insect. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion. Because it all is, can our life be beautiful and serene. How dreary would be the world if there is no Santa Claus would be! It then would be no Virginia, no faith, no poetry - nothing that made life bearable. Enjoyment, except in sense and sight would be left. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. There is a Santa Claus, otherwise you could not even believe in fairies. Certainly, you might get your papa to hire people on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus. And none of them in Santa Claus would get to face - what would that prove? No man sees him like that. This proves nothing. The most important things remain mostly invisible. The elves, for example, when they dance on the lawn. Nevertheless, they exist. to imagine all the wonders - let alone to see them - which can not be the smartest in the world. What you see also, you never see everything. You can leave a kaleidoscope of color and look for the most beautiful figures. You will find some colorful pieces, nothing more. Why? Because there is a veil covering the unseen world, a veil, not even the violence could tear apart the world. Only faith, poetry and love it can ventilate. Then the beauty and glory will be seen behind it. "Is it true?" You can ask. Virginia, there is nothing in the world nothing else real and abiding. Santa Claus lives, and he will live forever. Even ten times ten thousand Years he will be there to meet children like you and every heart of childhood.
Merry Christmas, Virginia. Your Francis Church. "
Francis Church's response was an absolute sensation, and became the most famous ever written any comments.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
opens with this contribution to the last door of Ellen's Creative Advent Calendar 2010
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