Religion: Death to Santa Glaus

Through the streets of Dijon, France last week, two days before Christmas, paraded a troupe of boys & girls bearing an 8-ft. effigy of the French Santa Claus, Pére Noél. Before Dijon's cathedral the marchers halted, and one of their number stepped out and addressed the others: "What shall we do with Pére Noél?"

"Burn him at the stake!" piped the children.

They hung the straw-filled effigy on the cathedral fence and set it afire. Over the smoking embers they posted a notice: "This is not a sporting boast nor a publicity stunt, but a loud and strong protest against a lie which is incapable of awakening religious sentiment in children . . . Pére Noél is the son of minds empty of God."

The auto-da-fé was part of a campaign by Roman Catholic clergy against the "paganization" of Christmas. It drew an approving and thoroughly Gallic nod from the Most Rev. Maurice Feltin, Archbishop of Paris: "The Christian significance of Christmas is debased by this legend [of Santa Claus] originating in the dense Saxon forests."