Father Christmas and Copernicus

It is common belief, amongst the youngest of our population, that a person called Father Christmas exists. I too, was no exception to this case. Until the age of six I was deeply rooted in the belief that Santa Claus did exist. All those month-long preparations for Christmas lists, decorations and shopping were all in anticipation for that one night of 24th December. The milk, cookies and carrots would be left out by 9, and an hour later I would be tucked into bed, too excited to sleep. The next morning the presents would be there, under the tree, waiting for me. When I turned six, however, my world came crashing down when I was told (by my then-evil sister) that Father Christmas did not exist. At first I could not believe it. Nothing made sense without Santa Claus – where did all the presents come from!? But when I began to reason his existence, some things did not seem to fit. How was it possible that each and every child around the world got a gift exactly on the same night? How were there Santa Clauses at each and every street corner? How did the post reach the North Pole, and more importantly, how could Santa read my writing?! It was nevertheless strange for me to grasp the concept that my parents were the ones delivering the presents and not the happy fat man in the red suit. The destruction of belief in Father Christmas came from my sister’s knowledge which I now had, as well as reasoning from myself. In the same way, when Nicolas Copernicus said that the earth was not the centre of the universe, he too, crashed the world of many people. He said that the earth rotates around the sun and he confirmed this by noticing the behaviour of movements of two particular stars (the planets Mercury and Venus). This came as a great shock and people refused to believe him as the Pope himself believed that the earth was the centre of the universe. His theory went against the belief of religion and philosophy of that time. The previous belief was so strong even though there was no evidence for it. Such a strong destruction of belief brought about a strong sense of denial and many people refused to accept the discovery until many years later. Therefore it is observed that Copernicus’s discovery proved the belief of that time period wrong. It is due to the evidence that the theory was soon accepted. Similarly, when a child discovers that Father Christmas does not exist, it can relate to Copernicus. It is through other’s knowledge, reasoning, self knowledge and the ability to learn, absorb and comprehend information that allows us to reconsider our some times misguided belief.