サンタクロースは、いる

クリスマス（Christmas）　イギリスでは１２月２４日のクリスマス・イヴ（Christmas Eve）から翌年の１月６日の救世主顕現の日（Epiphany）までをクリスマス季節（Christmastide）という。クリスマス・イヴには多くの教会で夜の１１時頃からキャンドル・キャロル（Candle Carol）が荘厳に行なわれる。会堂の電灯を消してろうそくだけの火の下で、聖歌隊の歌や会衆の斉唱による「きよしこの夜」の歌や祈りがつづいて、清らかな心に満たされて２５日の朝を迎える。
　　　―――『イギリスの生活と文化事典』

さて、子供に「サンタクロースはいるの？」と聞かれたら、どう答えるか。伝統的な問いですが、それに対して、社説で明快な回答を出した新聞社が１００年以上前のアメリカにあったことをご存知ですか？時は、１８９７年。８歳の女の子、ヴァージニアちゃんが出した一通の手紙がことの発端でした。

Dear Editor---
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon

“the Sun”というのは、New York Sun 紙のこと（すでに廃刊）。この難問に対する回答は人々の共感を呼び、毎年この季節になると、同じ社説を繰り返し載せることになったのです。今では、アメリカで最も有名な新聞社説として伝説的な存在で、およそアメリカ人なら知らない人はいないという名文です。私も大好きです。

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to have men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest men, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God, he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

肉眼で見、頭で想像し、触覚で感じえるものだけを信じることの愚かさ。本当に大切なものは目で見ることができない。そして、その見えない世界を我々の前に顕わし出すことができるのは、力ではなく、信仰であり、詩情であると。