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For Immediate Release
Contact Walter Skold at: sintknicker@aslansoc.org
or 207-449-8122 after 2:30
PM
ASLaN Launches
Anti-Claus Art Contest
On St. Nicholas Day
December
6, AD 2007 -- 198 years to-the-day from when Washington Irving
began the transformation of St. Nicholas, the International ASLaN
Society launched an art competition that hopes to eventually knock
Santa Claus from his cultural throne.
"We are calling on artists who are seriously sarcastic or sick of Santa
to step up and join the resistance against this bloated American Idol,"
said Walter Skold, the founder of the Anti-Santa Love Nicholas Society.
"Here is your chance to be the Thomas Nast of the growing anti-Claus
movement," he said, referring to the 19th Century German-American
illustrator "whose work helped to convert St. Nicholas from a saint
into someone who is now a fat red huckster from Hollywood."
It was almost 200 years ago that Washington Irving created so many of
the modern myths associated with the Americanized Santa Claus, when he
published Knickerbocker's History of New York, on St. Nicholas Day in
1809.
"Today is not only the Feast Day of the great St. Nicholas, but also
the sad literary anniversary of when so many of the lies which under
gird the modern Santa Cult were first introduced into the American
consciousness," he said.
Submission details and examples of global anti-Claus artwork can be
found at
the ASLAN's website.
"We are not expecting overnight success” he admitted, “But growing
criticism of Santacus Americanus shows that the cultural climate is
right for resisting all the hype, schmaltz, and greed that undergirds
our annual Santamania.”
On December 7, in a major reversal for the most re-printed essay in
American newspaper history, the New York Sun printed an editorial
called “A Fraud of a Santa.”
It pointed out that “Santa Claus seems more like a rep for toy
companies than much else. And he represents the ultimate in consumption
and entitlement.”
“Apologies to Francis Church, but skepticism concerning the cult of
Santa Claus wouldn't hurt a bit,” concluded the editorial. “At least
not if it helps the examples set by the real St. Nicholas to define the
season.”
"Our experience has shown that there are a significant number of
Americans who are sick and tired of the ubiquitous red beast from the
North," said Skold. "And just as artists have propped up Santa's
kingdom from the beginning, we hope that in 100 years artists will have
helped to topple teetering throne as well."
ASLaN is a 12-year old group that promotes resistance to Santa Claus,
and respect and appreciation for Saint Nicholas, through literature,
art, and activism.
Over the last two decades groups in England, the US, Germany, and the
Czech Republic have been started that seek to promote St. Nicholas and
to protest what the US Santa Claus has come to represent.
Irving's writings have been regarded by literary critics as the "first
notable work of imagination in the New World," and since then poets,
illustrators, advertisers, and scriptwriters have used art to produce
the popular image of Santa.
"From the global examples we have posted on the contest website," said
Skold, "It is clear that the creative imagination can also work wonders
to restore image of St. Nicholas that has been so distorted and abused
in our culture."
"If people think we are painting Santa Claus in a bad light, they are
right," he said. "The whole Santa Claus racket has been very naughty
and we intend to give Santa some artistic coal for many Christmases to
come."
-end-
Details
& Submission Guidelines First Annual Anti-Claus Art & Photo
Competition
2008 ASLaN
Christmas
Essay: "Just Say No
to the Ho Ho Ho.
Article on "Santa
Inc"
Examples of anti-Santa
artwork from Czech Republic
Article:
ASLaN's Belschnickle Gives Coal to Maine Santa