入冬了，先加件衣服一起來讀 #BBC新聞
🎅紅白色聖誕老人的前世今生
The real reason Father Christmas wears red and white

🎄 Why, after all, does Santa Claus wear red and white?

聖誕老人給人的印象，是一個穿著紅白色大衣的老人，但聖誕老人這個形象是甚麼時候開始的？

Many people will tell you that the modern Santa is dressed to match the red-and-white colors of a can of Coke, and was popularized by Coca Cola's advertising in the 1930s.

許多人會說，聖誕老人的衣服在1930年代被設計為紅白兩種顏色，是為了與可口可樂的罐子設計一致。

A good story, but the red-and-white Santa himself wasn't created to advertise Coca-Cola - why, he was touting the rival beverage White Rock back in 1923. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was the one who was invented as a marketing gimmick.

可口可樂公司當時的確有為宣傳可樂創造一個卡通人物，但那是紅鼻子馴鹿魯道夫，而不是身穿紅白衣服的聖誕老人──他1923年就已經誕生，當時是為了宣傳可口可樂的競爭對手White Rock汽水。

🤶 The modern Santa Claus is actually much older, a patchwork character woven together from different sources. These include Saint Nicholas, a 4th Century Greek bishop - who famously wore red robes while giving gifts to the poor, especially children - and the English folk figure "Father Christmas", whose original green robes turned red over time.

現代聖誕老人是用不同歷史人物的故事拼湊而成。這包括一名4世紀的 #希臘主教 聖尼古拉斯，許多神話都記載他身穿紅色外衣給窮人派禮物。另外，聖誕老人的部份特色來自英國神話故事人物 #聖誕神父，他原本身穿綠色外衣，但漸漸變成紅色。

The Santa we know also owes much to the Dutch figure Sinterklaas - also based on Saint Nicholas - whose legend flourished in the once-Dutch city of New York, popular with prosperous Manhattanites such as Washington Irving and Clement Clarke Moore in the early 1800s.

但對現代聖誕老人形象影響最深遠的，是受希臘主教聖尼古拉斯的一個荷蘭神話故事人物。他的中文譯名也是 #聖尼古拉斯，在曾經是荷蘭殖民地的紐約市十分流行，受歐文和穆爾等住在紐約曼克頓的作家歡迎。

🎁 It was in the 1820s, too, that advertisements for Christmas presents became common in the United States.

而在穆爾的同一個年代，美國零售商為了 #清理年末積壓下來的存貨，開始用廣告鼓勵大眾給其他人買聖誕禮物。

By the 1840s, Santa himself was a frequent commercial icon in advertisements. Retailers, after all, had to find some way to clear their end-of-year stock. The gift-giving tradition took firm hold.

到了1840年代，這些廣告經常都有聖誕老人出現，令聖誕節變成一個消費節日的傳統更為根深蒂固。

In Boston in 1867, 10,000 people paid to see Charles Dickens give readings of his Christmas Carol - a story light on biblical details and heavy on the idea of generosity.

1867年的底特律，約1萬人排隊買票，就是為了聽英國著名小說家狄更斯朗讀他的小說 #聖誕頌歌（又譯《小氣財神》），內容主要宣揚無私、慷慨解囊的精神。

想知道《小婦人》中，哪一句名言奠定了現代聖誕節的贈禮傳統嗎？
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#沒什麼，不過又是一個孤單的夜晚

This figure of a Tamil Chulia man holding up a beam is one of several at the entrance arch of Thian Hock Keng Temple. When raising funds to build the temple in the 1820s, Tamil Chulia from the Chulia mosques beside it contributed to the temple building fund. These figures acknowledge the Tamil Chulia contributions. Thian Hock Keng still stands side by side with the Chulia mosques to this day.
💚❤️
Such mutual respect is in the DNA of Singapore from the beginning.
❤️💚
Read more: https://johorkaki.blogspot.com/2018/11/thian-hock-keng-mazu-temple-of-heavenly.html

「神奈川沖浪裏（かながわおきなみうら）」是葛飾北斎最有代表性的作品，屬於「富嶽三十六景（ふがくさんじゅうろっけい）」其中一幅，發表這幅作品是他72歲了。

今日5月10日是藝術家的死忌，大英博物館有相關資料詳細英文解釋。無論你懂不懂得日語都可以了解一下這幅名傳千里、日本藝術品中的代表作。

Katsushika Hokusai died #onthisday in 1849. Hokusai is one of the most famous Japanese artists, and a key figure of the ukiyo-e ('floating world') school 🌊

These prints all come from his series Fugaku sanjūrokkei ('Thirty-six Views of Mt Fuji') made around 1829–1832. The major factor in establishing landscape as a new genre of ukiyo-e print was probably the sudden availability in the later 1820s of cheap Berlin blue. This strong, brilliant pigment could be used for water and sky, and would not fade. Hokusai used this new blue pigment to revolutionary effect in this series.