Emma Alvarez Blog: 2010

Saint Nicholas was born in the IV century in a place that belongs to Turkey in our times. He was a man that provided from a rich family and became famous in those times because of his generosity with the poor.

An epidemic left him without family so he became the heir of a big fortune. When he was 19, he became a priest. He invested big fortunes in making presents to poor children and orphans. Years later, Nicholas was vested bishop in Myra (Turkey).

Photo By Klearchos Kapoutsis

There are many stories around the generosity of Saint Nicholas. One of them is that when Christmas was near, a ruined merchant couldn't pay his daughter's dowry so she can marry. Nicholas heard this and left him a bag full of gold coins in his door. Since that moment the custom of exchanging presents in Christmas started to become more popular.

Although the origin of giving presents for Christmas came from ancient Rome, when in the middle of December there were some celebrations in honor of Saturn in which the people gave presents to the children.

Photo By Hammer51012

Saint Nicholas died in a date near Christmas so in some way it turned for History and forever into something like the father of Christmas, representing the values of generosity and goodness.
The mortal remains of Saint Nicholas were taken to Bari (Italy), where a church with his name was built.

Although Saint Nicholas was a thin man and carried the clothes of a priest, the image of Saint Nicholas (also known as Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, or "Santa") today is very different from this, and is due to the writer Clement C. Moore, who in a poem in 1823 described him as a fun, fat, short man, that carried a sleigh with 9 reindeer.

Photo By MoonSoleil

Years later the drawer Thomas Nast depicted a Santa Claus that was wearing red clothes with a hat, tall boots, and had a toy workshop in the North Pole.

Haddon Sundblom, the Swedish drawer, in 1931, gave Santa Claus the popular appearance that has today, and was a commissioned work for Coca Cola.

Exhibition For Human Rights
(Read more...)

Interesting Movie Releases For December 2010
(Read more...)

Northern Lights
(Read more...)

Yearly Artist Party At EDA
(Read more...)

The Depiction Of Justice
(Read more...)

In ancient Greece, the oldest depiction of justice was the goddess Astraea. Astraea was a Titanide, a descendant of the Titans, a powerful race of gods that ruled the Earth in the so called Golden Age.

Astraea was daughter of Zeus (the supreme god) and Themis (the second wife of Zeus). For some time, Astraea and her mother were in charge of administer justice. Astraea judged the humans whereas her mother Themis represented the divine justice.

"Justice" by Emma Alvarez

But Astraea, horrified by the evil and cruel human condition abandoned the Earth. It is said that she was the last immortal that lived amongst the humans.

Zeus granted her to go back to the Olympus and Astraea became the assistant of her father, being the carrier of his lightnings.

She was a loyal assistant, so Zeus gave her permission to keep her virginity, being the only virgin amongst all the Titanides. And as a reward, he placed her amongst the stars to become part of the constellation of Virgo (that means "the virgin"). The scales she was carrying in her hands became the constellation of Libra.

So Themis had to represent Justice in the Earth, appearing in the Iliad of Homer, and being depicted as a sweet goddess that gives wise advice to humans although other times she dictates the orders of her husband Zeus.

Photo by mira66

If humans didn't accept the punishments of Themis, Nemesis was sent, a vindictive goddess that gave punishments full of rage and fury.

The judicial sentences had the name of "Themistas" in honor of goddess Themis.

In Roman mythology, the goddess of Justice is depicted with a helmet, a scales, and a cornucopia (the Horn Of Abundance), and is in company of a lion that represents the strength and fear of facing Justice. She was called "Fas", that meant "what is just".

But since year 452, with pope Leo the Great, this depiction changed progressively. The lion was replaced by a sword, with the purpose to exert authority with firmness, and the scales was sometimes replaced by a papyrus or a book that represented the written law.

It was some centuries later and during the French Revolution when Justice started to appear blindfolded, wanting to depict a more objective and impartial justice.