Is there a santa claus?
"Is there a Santa Claus?" (In the English original "Is There a Santa Claus?" ) Was the headline in a leading article , in the issue of 21 September 1897, the newspaper New York Sun published. The by Francis Pharcellus Church wrote Editorial with the given fact answer "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus " (in the English original "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" ) is an integral part of popular Christmas traditions in the United States and elsewhere become.
history
In 1897 Philip O'Hanlon, assistant coroner on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was asked by his eight-year-old daughter, Virginia , whether Santa Claus really existed. Virginia had begun to doubt whether there was a Santa Claus because her friends had told her he didn't exist.
Her father replied evasively, but agreed to her writing to the New York Sun , a major New York newspaper at the time, assuring her that the paper would tell the truth. In doing so, he inadvertently gave an editor of the paper, Francis P. Church, the opportunity to ponder this simple question and discuss the philosophical implications.
Church had been a war correspondent during the American Civil War; that time had brought great suffering and a corresponding lack of hope and faith in many in society. Although the paper placed the response to Virginia's letter seventh under the editorials on page 6, still under a comment about a newly invented “chained bicycle,” the message was very moving for many who read it. More than a century later, it is the most reprinted editorial of all in the English language newspapers.
The authenticity of the letter has been questioned and the young girl's authorship has been questioned as she was not trusted to refer to children of her own age as “my little friends”. However, the authenticity of the letter was later confirmed by an expert.
Text translation
The following version is based on the original text without the usual embellishments in the German language in the press or on websites.
We are happy to answer the following message immediately and thus in an outstanding way and at the same time express our great joy that your conscientious author is one of the friends of the Sun :
- Dear editor: I am 8 years old.
- Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
- Papa says, 'If you see it in the Sun, it is so.'
- Please tell me the truth: is there a Santa Claus?
- Virginia O'Hanlon.
- 115 West Ninety-fifth Street.
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They are influenced by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They don't believe in anything they can't see. They believe that nothing can be that their little mind cannot grasp. The mind, Virginia, whether adult or child, is always small. In this great universe of ours, man is intellectually a mere insect, an ant, compared to the limitless world above him, measured by the intelligence that is capable of grasping the totality of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as undoubtedly as love and generosity and affection exist, and you know that they are abundant and give your life its utmost beauty and joy. Oh dear! How dreary the world would be if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there weren't any Virginias there. There would then be no childlike belief, no poetry, no romance that would make this existence bearable. We have no joy except through the senses and the sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Don't believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in elves! You could get your papa to hire people to watch the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus; but even if they didn't see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa, but that's not a sign that Santa doesn't exist. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor adults can see. Have you ever seen elves dance on the lawn? Of course not, but that doesn't prove they're not there. No one can comprehend or imagine the unseen and invisible wonders of the world.
You can tear apart the baby rattle and see what is making the noise in it; but the invisible world is covered with a veil that not the strongest man, not even the common strength of all the strongest men of all time, could tear apart. Only faith, imagination, poetry, love, romance can push this curtain aside and contemplate and describe the supernatural beauty and shine behind it. Is it all true? Oh, Virginia, nothing else in the world is truer and more consistent.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, no, ten times ten thousand years from now he will continue to please the heart of childhood.
aftermath
When the editorial is reproduced today, often more than half of Church's original answer is omitted. A part that is often not repeated starts with Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. ("Don't believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in elves.")
Each year, Virginia's Letter and Church's Reply are read in a ceremony at its alma mater , Columbia College of Columbia University .
The story of Virginia's inquiry and the "Sun" response received an Emmy in a 1974 television version . The animations came from Bill Melendez (known for his work on Peanuts specials), the voices from Jim Backus and Jimmy Osmond . In New York City , local television journalist Gabe Pressman retold the Christmas story for over thirty years.
Virginia O'Hanlon received mail about her letter all her life. She enclosed a copy of the editorial in her replies. In an interview in her later life, she credited the editorial for having shaped the direction of her life quite positively.
The story provided material for various artistic arrangements. Among others, the duo The Dresden Dolls released an album in 2006 with the title Yes, Virginia… . Part of the text was quoted in the TV series Alf in the episode When Santa Claus is Coming , as well as in the Christmas film Jessica and the Reindeer from 1989. steyl medien produced a short film about the story.
Adaptation as a Christ Child
In southern German and Austrian renditions of the letter, “Santa Claus” is often translated as Christ Child . This corresponds to the role of the Christ Child as a Christmas gift in those parts of the German-speaking area where Santa Claus is not or not so well known.
literature
- Virginia O'Hanlon, Francis P. Church, Günter Henrich: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! . Verlag Michaela Naumann, Nidderau 2000, ISBN 3-933575-23-0 .
Web links
- Text in the English Wikisource (last accessed December 6, 2012)
- Newseum: Editorial text with images of the original page (last accessed on December 6, 2012)
- 1963 CBC radio interview with Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas (last accessed December 18, 2017)
- South German rendering ( memento from March 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive )