Posted on 12/21/2008 2:49:32 PM PST by Alex Murphy
BERLIN (AFP) — Santa beware! Activists in Germany are waging an international campaign to do away with old Father Christmas and say they are gaining ground thanks to the global economic meltdown.
Armed with child-friendly stickers, web-savvy promoters and chocolate figurines, the "Santa-Free Zone" movement says it is gathering steam this year against what it calls the hollow commercialisation of Christmas.
Launched by a German Catholic priest in 2002, the campaign aims to knock Santa off his pedestal and replace what they see as a cheap, American import with the real thing: Saint Nicholas.
"The movement is intended to raise awareness of the fact that the consumption-oriented Santa launched by the Christmas gift industry has very little to do with the holy bishop Saint Nicholas," said Christoph Schommer of the Catholic aid group Bonifatiuswerk, which is rallying the Santa opposition.
Saint Nicholas, an actual historical figure, was in the fourth century Bishop of Myra in today's Turkey whose legendary modesty and generosity led him to give gifts in secret.
As the story goes, his greatest miracle was saving three girls whose impoverished father wanted to sell them into prostitution. Nicholas, who had inherited a fortune from his father, left three lumps of gold over three nights in their room while they were sleeping.
Catholics and Orthodox Christians in much of the world still celebrate Saint Nicholas Day, usually on December 6, as a festival for children, who receive chocolates in their shoes when they leave them out overnight.
But Saint Nicholas has long been upstaged during the holiday season by the ho-ho-ho-ing Santa Claus, or Father Christmas in Britain and Canada, and activists would like the saint to reclaim the Yuletide throne.
Santa's red fur-lined suit, chubby mid-section and fluffy white beard are all thought to be inventions of
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
They are Mongolid looking — also, sa’ami genetics indicate Mongoloid genes on the patrileanal side
Since the early years of genetic research, the Sami people have caught the interests of scientists. The fact that the Sami languages belong to the Uralic languages family of Eurasia suggested that the Sami might be of Siberian origin. The frequency of blood group and protein polymorphisms in Saami differ significantly from the general Swedish population.[1] In more recent years the use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-DNA chromosomal markers has offered the opportunity for clarification of the origin of the Sami. While their mtDNA haplogroup distribution mainly represents a subset of the European gene-pool, the most common Y-DNA haplogroup among the Sami is of Asian origin. However the second most common haplogroup is I, which is found almost exclusively among those of European ancestry. Thus the Sami appear to have a complex population history, suggesting a mixture of peoples arriving in Fenno-Scandia at different times, from different directions.
They are simply the FIRST white people to break out of the Ice Age refugia along the Spanish/French border areas.
The cold, hard facts are that ALL Europeans have a 5% East Asian background population down there, and ALL East Asians have a 5% European background.
Topping it off Sa'ami have a special DNA sequence they share with all Sa'ami, the Berbers, the Fulba, the Sakha/Yakuts, and North American Indians (not all of them just the Ojibway/Chippewa, the Cherokee and the Iroquois).
Check http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1199377/
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