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| Weihnachten
/ Advent |
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Deutsche Feste, Feier- und Brauchtumstage > Weihnachten
/ Advent > Santa
Claus > Yes, Virginia |
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| Yes, Virginia, there is a
Santa Claus |
Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa
Claus
We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the
same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among 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’s so." Please tell me the truth, is there a
Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a
skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which
is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be
men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere
insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as
measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and
devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and
joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as
dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry,
no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense
and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your
papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but
even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa
Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world
are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the
lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive
or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a
veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength
of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love,
romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory
beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and
abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now,
Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of
childhood. |
+ Weihnachten / Santa Claus / Christmas +
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