Tidbits of History, December 6

December 6 is the 341st day of the year.

St. Nicholas Day Children in families who celebrate St Nicholas’ Day receive treats – including candy, cookies, small toys, or fruit – in stockings, socks, shoes or bags on December 6. The legendary figure of St. Nicholas is derived from Nicholas of Myra who officiated as a bishop in 4th century Greece. During his lifetime he developed a reputation for gift-giving by putting coins into other people’s shoes, which accounts for many of today’s Christmas traditions that involve leaving gifts in shoes or boots. {In my family, St. Nicholas filled up stockings on December 6. We didn’t have stockings on Christmas Day.}

In the 16th Century in Europe, the stories and traditions about St. Nicholas had become very unpopular. But someone had to deliver presents to children at Christmas, so in the UK, he became ‘Father Christmas’, a character from old children’s stories; in France, he was then known as ‘Père Nöel’; in Germany, the ‘Christ Kind’. In the early USA his name was ‘Kris Kringle’. Later, Dutch settlers in the USA took the old stories of St. Nicholas with them and Kris Kringle became ‘Sinterklaas’ or as we now say ‘Santa Claus’! It is from St. Nicholas that Santa Claus is sometimes referred to as “Old St. Nick”.

Mitten Tree Day

National Gazpacho Day

The city of Quito in Ecuador was founded by Spanish settlers led by Sebastián de Belalcázar in 1534. Celebrated on December 6th as Founder’s Day in Ecuador.

The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica was published on this date in 1768.

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially abolished slavery in America, and was ratified on December 6, 1865, after the conclusion of the American Civil War. The amendment states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., was completed in 1884.
From History.com

Made of some 36,000 blocks of marble and granite stacked 555 feet in the air, the monument was the tallest structure in the world at the time of its completion in December 1884. In the six months following the dedication ceremony, over 10,000 people climbed the nearly 900 steps to the top of the Washington Monument. Today, an elevator makes the trip far easier, and more than 800,000 people visit the monument each year. A city law passed in 1910 restricted the height of new buildings to ensure that the monument will remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C.–a fitting tribute to the man known as the “Father of His Country.”

On this date in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt articulated his “Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the U.S. would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.