Do you think that having Santa Claus as a Christmas icon?!
Why?
1. He drinks milk and eats cookies (nonvegan I am sure)
(I have left him carrot sticks before and kale juice and he didn't so much as touch it!)
2. He exploits reindeers.
3. He delivers toys that have been fashioned by animal byproducts.
All vegans need to steer clear of this evil doer. I think we need a new Christmas Icon. Best new icon gets 10 free pts!
Answers: exploiting animals?
Why?
1. He drinks milk and eats cookies (nonvegan I am sure)
(I have left him carrot sticks before and kale juice and he didn't so much as touch it!)
2. He exploits reindeers.
3. He delivers toys that have been fashioned by animal byproducts.
All vegans need to steer clear of this evil doer. I think we need a new Christmas Icon. Best new icon gets 10 free pts!
Oh gosh... I absolutely love kale, but kale juice just sounds so unbelievable disgusting! ::gag::
I know who our new Christmas icon could be: YOU! Since you're so moral, intelligent, and, of course, a supreme vegan, we can all hope to see you coast through the air on your magic carpet and hand out vegan toys!! Whoop-di-dooooo...!!!!
he's also fake... oops, my bad
I think you're overreacting a bit. Santa is for kids. If you want to tell your child who believes in Santa that he doesn't exist and that the whole thing "exploits animals" go ahead. Good grief!
It's Santa clause...He's been around for centurys..He's known by everyone in the world....Their isn't going to be another 'Christmas Icon'...unless you plan on running the world and changing it...Till then...Deal with him.
idc why it matters? are you a vegan that eats fish and chicken? If you are then you are eating ANIMALS!! OH GOD kill a poor animal !?!? who cares?? and FYI santa isnt real
Must everything be controversial? Please cut me a break. I am sick to death of everything offending people. You need to be in an insane asylum.
Ha ha LOL
Okay, how about Kris Kringle or Father Christmas
1. He clearly doesn't eat cookies or drink milk.
2. He only walks along side the animals of the forest...doesn't ride any of them!
3. He doesn't deliver any toys from animal by poducts...only hand carved rocking horses from tree branches that have fallen in the forest.
http://www.christmastraditions.com/Orns/...
http://www.christmas-decorations-gifts-s...
The Santa that I know and love only eats soy milk and vegan cookies and he feeds his reindeers organic carrots. He is very kind to his animals and all of the toys he gives are animal free.
So pooh on you! He's bringing you coal this year just for insulting him.
i'm not a big "Christmas" celebrator as i do not consider myself Christian. but things to consider:
1. leave Santa soymilk and vegan cookies (i leave soymilk and a vegan cupcake actually - rather, my son does).
2. Santa's reindeer are considered companion animals, or even in the same category as assistance animals. they are well-fed and are basically on vacation for 364 consecutive days. besides which, how strenuous can floating in the air really be? i mean, if the sleigh can fly, how much work can it honestly take to pull it? i'm not so sure about how Santa does the maneuvering - i've seen everything from a bullwhip to a steering wheel - this must be investigated further.
3. Santa brings clothes to our house. he also likes to bring us books and useful things. we have grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, teachers, neighbors, etc. to bring us evil trinkets built on the blood of animals.
boycott Christmas - go Pagan!
Santa's definitely not vegan. He's the best Xmas icon we've got though.
Yes! I think a troll in a santa hat should be our new christmas symbol.
So celebrate Solstice and leave Santa out of it. Santa's a fictional icon anyway, invented as a minigod to get kids to behave.
Nice try, TROLL. As Santa is imaginary, he is whatever we wish him to be. And he seemed to like soymilk and vegan chocolate chip cookies okay, maybe he's trying to cut back on that waistline.
hmmm.... well for one santa is your parents so if your parents arent vegans or vegtarians than they probably dont like what you gave them.
I have attached information on Santa Claus. Read it and rethink your question. Take everything you read into consideration before asking for a new Christmas Symbol.
Santa Claus, Holiday Figure / Toy Deliverer
* Born: ?
* Birthplace: The North Pole
* Best Known As: Jolly toy-delivering Christmas figure
Also known as: St. Nicholas; Kris Kringle; Father Christmas
Santa Claus is the mythical figure who delivers toys to children around the world each year on Christmas Eve. According to legend, Santa lives at the North Pole and oversees a toy workshop run by busy elves. Each December 24th, on the eve of the celebration of the birth of Jesus, Santa is said to fly around the world delivering his toys in a sled pulled by eight reindeer: Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donder (or Donner), Prancer, and Vixen. (A ninth reindeer with a shiny nose, Rudolph, was introduced in Gene Autry's 1949 country music hit "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.") The name Santa Claus was derived from Sinterklaas, the Dutch term for the ancient Christian figure of Saint Nicholas.
The Santa Claus myth was popularized in America by the 1823 poem "A Visit From Saint Nicholas," attributed to Clement Moore. The poem begins "Twas the night before Christmas"... In the early 1860s cartoonist Thomas Nast drew Santa as a round, bearded man in a red suit, an image that stuck... An 1897 editorial by Frank P. Church in the New York Sun coined the famous phrase "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." Church was replying to a letter from a young reader, Virginia O'Hanlon, who asked if Santa Claus really existed... According to the Encarta encyclopedia, the nickname Kris Kringle evolved from the German words for Christ child, Christkindl.
Santa Claus
This American name for the Christmas gift-bringer is increasingly used in England, generally in the shortened form ‘Santa’. Early American settlers, being Puritans, rejected the English Father Christmas, but later Dutch immigrants brought traditions about St Nicholas, popularized through a poem by Clement Clark Moore, ‘The Visit of Saint Nicholas’ (1822), now more usually called ‘The Night Before Christmas’. Moore describes the saint not as a bishop in a red cope, as in Holland, but as a fat man dressed in fur, driving a reindeer sleigh. He may well have been aware that in many European traditions, notably in Germany, St Nicholas is accompanied by fur-clad or gnome-like servants who carry presents for good children, but a birch for bad ones; such images might seem more appealing than a saint in religious garb. Illustrating Moore's poem in the 1860s, Thomas Nast used the colloquial Dutch ‘Santa Claus’ rather than the formal ‘St Nicholas’, and dressed him in a belted jacket and furry cap.
During the rest of the 19th century, Santa was often shown in a red jacket but with blue knickerbockers, as befits a Dutchman; in the 20th century, an all-red outfit with white trimmings became the norm, especially after a Coca-Cola advertising campaign exploited his figure in 1931. The artist, the Swede Haddon Sundblom, also gave him a drooping tassled red cap like those associated with elves and gnomes; he may have been thinking of a Swedish Christmas gnome. Scandinavian influence also accounts for the elfin assistants often mentioned, and the home at the North Pole. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dates from 1949, in a song by Johnny Marks.
The name apparently reached England in the 1870s, to the puzzlement of observers, though the hanging-up of stockings was already an ‘old’ custom, at any rate in the northern countries (Henderson, 1866: 50). The first mention of the gift-bringer's name which we have traced is a letter to N&Q (5s:11 (1879), 66), where a Mr Edwin Lees says he has ‘only lately been told’ of a custom currently observed in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Devonshire, which he has not seen recorded anywhere:
On Christmas Eve, when the inmates of a house in the country retire to bed, all those desirous of a present place a stocking outside the door of their bedroom, with the expectation that some mythical being called Santiclaus will fill the stocking or place something within it before morning. This is of course well known, and the master of the house does in reality place a Christmas gift secretly in each stocking; but the giggling girls in the morning, when bringing down their presents, affect to say that Santiclaus visited and filled the stockings in the night. From what region of the earth or air this benevolent Santiclaus takes flight I have not been able to ascertain.
William Brockie noticed the same custom round Durham in the 1880s; he too was puzzled by the unfamiliar name and made the ingenious but mistaken guess that it was ‘Santa Cruz, the Holy Cross’ which brought the presents (Brockie, 1886: 92-3). By what channels this American feature reached Victorian England is at present unknown. One possibility (proposed anonymously in The Times of 22 December 1956) is a popular American story, The Christmas Stocking by Susan Warner, printed in London in 1854 and several times thereafter.
Origins
Saint Nicholas of Myra is the primary inspiration for the Christian figure of Santa Claus. He was a 4th century Christian bishop of Myra in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor, in particular presenting the three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with dowries so that they would not have to become prostitutes. He was very religious from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity. In Europe (more precisely the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Germany) he is still portrayed as a bearded bishop in canonical robes. The relics of St. Nicholas were transported to Bari in southern Italy by some enterprising Italian merchants; a basilica was constructed in 1087 to house them and the area became a pilgrimage site for the devout. Saint Nicholas became revered by many as the patron saint of seamen, merchants, archers, children, prostitutes, pharmacists, lawyers, pawnbrokers, prisoners, the city of Amsterdam and of Russia. In Greece, Saint Nicholas is substituted for Saint Basil (Agios Vasilis in Greek), a 4th century AD bishop from Caesarea. Also, the Northern part of the Netherlands and a few villages in Flanders, Belgium, celebrate a near identical figure, Sint-Maarten (Saint Martin of Tours).[2]
Germanic folklore
Odin, the wanderer.
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Odin, the wanderer.
Prior to the Germanic peoples' Christianization, Germanic folklore contained stories about the god Odin (Wodan), who would each year, at Yule, have a great hunting party accompanied by his fellow gods and the fallen warriors residing in his realm. Children would place their boots, filled with carrots, straw or sugar, near the chimney for Odin's flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir's food with gifts or candy [Siefker, chap. 9, esp. 171-173]. This practice survived in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands after the adoption of Christianity and became associated with Saint Nicholas.
Children still place their straw filled shoes at the chimney every winter night, and Saint Nicholas rewards them with candy and gifts. Odin's appearance was often similar to that of Saint Nicholas, being depicted as an old, mysterious man with a beard. This practice in turn came to America via the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam prior to the British seizure in the 17th century, and evolved into the hanging of socks or stockings at the fireplace. In many regions of Austria and former Austro-Hungarian Italy (Friuli, city of Trieste) children are given sweets and gift Saint Nicholas's Day (San Niccolò in Italian), in accordance with the Catholic calendar, December the 6th.
An early folk tale, originating among the Germanic tribes, tells of a holy man (sometimes Saint Nicholas), and a demon (sometimes the Devil, Krampus, or a troll). Young men dressed as Krampus are still involved in the celebration of Saint Nicholas's Day in K?rnten (southern Austria) and Carnia (northern-eastern Italy). The story states that the land was terrorized by a monster who at night would slither down the chimneys and slaughter children (disembowelling them or stuffing them up the flue, or keeping them in a sack to eat later). The holy man sought out the demon, and tricked it with blessed or magical shackles (in some versions the same shackles that imprisoned Christ prior to the crucifixion, in other versions the shackles were those used to hold St. Peter or Paul of Tarsus); the demon was trapped and forced to obey the saint's orders. The saint ordered him to go to each house and make amends, by delivering gifts to the children. Depending on the version, the saint either made the demon fulfill this task every year, or the demon was so disgusted by the act of good will that it chose to be sent back to Hell.
Yet other versions have the demon reform under the saint's orders, and go on to recruit other elves and imps into helping him, thus becoming Santa Claus. Another form of the above tale in Germany is of the Pelznickel or Belsnickle ("Furry Nicholas") who visited naughty children in their sleep. The name originated from the fact that the person appeared to be a huge beast since he was covered from head to toe in furs.
Dutch folklore
In the Netherlands Saint Nicolas (often called "De Goede Sint" — "The Friendly Saint") was originally aided by slaves, commonly known as Zwarte Piet ("Black Peter"). Some tales depict Zwarte Piet beating bad children with a rod or even taking them to Moorish Spain in a sack. Some consider the legend of Zwarte Piet to be racist because it refers to Saint Nicholas having African slaves work for him in the days before pakjesavond (the 5th of December — the day on which presents are opened), even though the Zwarte Pieten are not depicted as slaves today.
The grateful Zwarte Piet had nowhere to go, as he was separated from his relatives and had no work to support himself, and so Saint Nicolas offered him a job. Some say that this job was listing children's wishes for Boxing Day, others say that Zwarte Piet was keeping track of all the bad children in order to capture them in a sack and take them back to Spain. In recent decades this story has been altered and the former slaves have become modern servants who have black faces because they climb through chimneys and get blackened by the soot from the fire.
Sinterklaas wears clothing similar to a bishop's. He wears a red mitre with a 'golden' cross and carries a bishop's staff. The connection with the original bishop of Myra is still evident here.
Presents given during this feast are often accompanied by poems, sometimes fairly basic, sometimes quite elaborate pieces of art that mock events in the past year relating to the recipient (who is thus at the receiving end in more than one sense). The gifts themselves may be just an excuse for the wrapping, which can also be quite elaborate. The more serious gifts may be reserved for the next morning. Since the giving of presents is Sinterklaas's job, presents are traditionally not given at Christmas in the Netherlands, but commercialism is starting to tap into this market.
The Zwarte Pieten are roughly to the Dutch Saint Nicolas what the elves and reindeer are to America's Santa Claus. According to tradition, the saint has a Piet for every function: there are navigation Pieten to navigate the steamboat from Spain to Holland, or acrobatic Pieten for climbing up the roofs to stuff presents through the chimney, or to climb through themselves. Throughout the years many stories have been added, mostly made up by parents to keep children's belief in Saint Nicolas intact and to discourage misbehaviour. In most cases the Pieten are quite lousy at their job, such as the navigation Piet (Dutch "wegwijs piet") pointing in the wrong direction. This is often used to provide some simple comedy in the annual parade of Saint Nicolas coming to the Netherlands, and can also be used to laud the progress of children at school by having the Piet give the wrong answer to, for example, a simple mathematical question like 2+2, so that the child in question is (or can be) persuaded to give the right answer.
Modern origins
The Ghost of Christmas Present, a colorized version of the original illustration by John Leech made for Charles Dickens's novel A Christmas Carol (1843).
The Ghost of Christmas Present, a colorized version of the original illustration by John Leech made for Charles Dickens's novel A Christmas Carol (1843).
Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history and folklore merged with the British character Father Christmas to create the character known to Britons and Americans as Santa Claus. Father Christmas dates back at least as far as the 17th century in Britain, and pictures of him survive from that era, portraying him as a well-nourished bearded man dressed in a long, green, fur-lined robe. He typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, and was reflected in the "Ghost of Christmas Present" in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
The name Santa Claus is derived from Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for the character based on St. Nicholas. He is also known there by the name of Sint Nicolaas which explains the use of the two fairly dissimilar names Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas or St. Nick.
Main article: Tomte
Folk tale depiction of Father Christmas riding on a goat. Perhaps an evolved version of the Swedish Tomte.
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Folk tale depiction of Father Christmas riding on a goat. Perhaps an evolved version of the Swedish Tomte.
In other countries, the figure of Saint Nicholas was also blended with local folklore. As an example of the still surviving pagan imagery, in Nordic countries there was the Yule Goat (Swedish julbock, Norwegian "julebukk", Danish "julebuk" Finnish joulupukki), a somewhat startling figure with horns which delivered the presents on Christmas Eve. A straw goat is still a common Christmas decoration in Sweden, Norway and Finland.
In the 1840s, the Tomte or Nisse in Nordic folklore started to deliver the Christmas presents in Denmark, but was then called the "Julenisse", dressed in gray clothes and a red hat. By the end of the 19th century this tradition had also spread to Norway and Sweden (where the "nisse" is called Tomte), replacing the Yule Goat. The same thing happened in Finland, but there the more human figure retained the Yule Goat name.
American origins
Thomas Nast immortalized Santa Claus with an illustration for the January 3, 1863, issue of Harper's Weekly.
Thomas Nast immortalized Santa Claus with an illustration for the January 3, 1863, issue of Harper's Weekly.
In the British colonies of North America and later the United States, British and Dutch versions of the gift-giver merged further. For example, in Washington Irving's History of New York, (1809), Sinterklaas was Americanized into "Santa Claus" but lost his bishop's apparel, and was at first pictured as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat. Irving's book was a lampoon of the Dutch culture of New York, and much of this portrait is his joking invention.
Modern ideas of Santa Claus seemingly became canon after the publication of the poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (better known today as "The Night Before Christmas") in the Troy, New York, Sentinel on December 23, 1823. In this poem Santa is established as a heavyset individual with eight reindeer (who are named for the first time). Santa Claus later appeared in various colored costumes as he gradually became amalgamated with the figure of Father Christmas, but red soon became popular after he appeared wearing such on an 1885 Christmas card. Still, one of the first artists to capture Santa Claus' image as we know him today was Thomas Nast, an American cartoonist of the 19th century. In 1863, a picture of Santa illustrated by Nast appeared in Harper's Weekly.
Another popularization was L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, a 1902 children's book. Much of Santa Claus's mythos was not set in stone at the time, leaving Baum to give his "Neclaus" (Necile's Little One) a wide variety of immortal support, a home in the Laughing Valley of Hohaho, and ten reindeer which could not fly, but leapt in enormous, flight-like bounds. Claus's immortality was earned, much like his title ("Santa"), decided by a vote of those naturally immortal. Also established Claus's motives: a happy childhood among immortals. When Ak, Master Woodsman of the World, exposes him to the misery and poverty of children in the outside world, he strives to find a way to bring joy into the lives of all children, and eventually invents toys as a principal means.
Images of Santa Claus were further cemented through Haddon Sundblom's depiction of him for The Coca-Cola Company's Christmas advertising. The popularity of the image spawned urban legends that Santa Claus was in fact invented by Coca-Cola or that Santa wears red and white because those are the Coca-Cola colors. In fact, Coca-Cola was not even the first soft drink company to utilize the modern image Santa Claus in its advertising – White Rock Beverages used Santa in advertisements for its ginger ale in 1923 after first using him to sell mineral water in 1915.[1][2]
The image of Santa Claus as a benevolent character became reinforced with its association with charity and philanthropy, particularly organizations such as the Salvation Army. Volunteers dressed as Santa Claus typically became part of fundraising drives to aid needy families at Christmas time.
A man dressed up as Santa Claus fundraising for Volunteers of America on the sidewalk of street in Chicago, Illinois, in 1902. He is wearing a mask with a beard attached. DN-0001069, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.
A man dressed up as Santa Claus fundraising for Volunteers of America on the sidewalk of street in Chicago, Illinois, in 1902. He is wearing a mask with a beard attached. DN-0001069, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.
In 1889, the poet Katherine Lee Bates created a wife for Santa, Mrs. Claus, in the poem "Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride." The 1956 popular song by George Melachrino, "Mrs. Santa Claus," helped standardize and establish the character and role in the popular imagination.
In some images of the early 20th century, Santa was depicted as personally making his toys by hand in a small workshop like a craftsman. Eventually, the idea emerged that he had numerous elves responsible for making the toys, but the toys were still handmade by each individual elf working in the traditional manner.
The concept of Santa Claus continues to inspire writers and artists, such as in author Seabury Quinn's 1948 novel "Roads", which draws from historical legends to tell the story of Santa and the origins of Christmas. Other modern additions to the "mythology" of Santa include Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the ninth and lead reindeer immortalized in a Gene Autry song, written by a Montgomery Ward copywriter.
In Poland, Santa Claus gives gifts on the 6th of December. On the Christmas Eve it is the Angel that brings presents, though. In Hungary, Santa Claus (Télapó or Mikulás) brings small gifts (usually candy and chocolate) during the night of the 6th of December and Little Jesus (Jézuska) brings the tree as well as the presents on Christmas Eve. Santa is often dressed up in red.
By the end of the century, the reality of mass mechanized production became more fully accepted by the Western public. That shift was reflected in the modern depiction of Santa's residence—now often humorously portrayed as a fully mechanized production and distribution facility, equipped with the latest manufacturing technology, and overseen by the elves with Santa and Mrs. Claus as executives and/or managers [see Nissenbaum, chap. 2; Belk, 87-100]. An excerpt from a 2004 article, from a supply chain managers' trade magazine, aptly illustrates this depiction:
Santa’s main distribution center is a sight to behold. At 4 million square feet, it’s one of the world’s largest facilities. A real-time warehouse management system is of course required to run such a complex. The facility makes extensive use of task interleaving, literally combining dozens of DC activities (putaway, replenishing, order picking, sleigh loading, cycle counting) in a dynamic queue...the DC elves have been on engineered standards and incentives for three years, leading to a 12% gain in productivity...The WMS and transportation system are fully integrated, allowing (the elves) to make optimal decisions that balance transportation and order picking and other DC costs. Unbeknownst to many, Santa actually has to use many sleighs and fake Santa drivers to get the job done Christmas Eve, and the TMS optimally builds thousands of consolidated sacks that maximize cube utilization and minimize total air miles. [3].
Many television commercials, comic strip and other media depict this as a sort of humorous business, with Santa's elves acting as a sometimes mischievously disgruntled workforce, cracking jokes and pulling pranks on their boss. For instance, an early Bloom County story has Santa telling the story of how his elves went on strike, only to be fired by Ronald Reagan and replaced by unemployed Aircraft control personnel.
Main article: Christmas controversies
Excerpt from Josiah King's The Examination and Tryal of Father Christmas (1686), published shortly after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
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Excerpt from Josiah King's The Examination and Tryal of Father Christmas (1686), published shortly after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
Though Santa Claus has Christian origins, he has become a secular representation of Christmas. As such, a number of Christian churches dislike the secular focus on Santa Claus and the materialist focus that present-receiving gives to the holiday.
Such a condemnation of Santa Claus is not a 20th-century phenomenon, but originated among some Protestant groups of the 16th century and was prevalent among the Puritans of 17th-century England and America who banned the holiday as either pagan or Roman Catholic. Following the English Civil War, under Oliver Cromwell's government Christmas was banned. Following the Restoration of the monarchy and with Puritans out of power in England,[4] the ban on Christmas was satirized in works such as Josiah King's The Examination and Tryal of Old Father Christmas; Together with his Clearing by the Jury (1686) [Nissenbaum, chap. 1].
Rev. Paul Nedergaard, a clergyman in Copenhagen, Denmark attracted controversy in 1958 when he declared Santa to be a "pagan goblin" after Santa's image was used on fundraising materials for a Danish welfare organization Clar, 337. One prominent religious group that refuses to celebrate Santa Claus, or Christmas itself, for similar reasons is the Jehovah's Witnesses. A number of denominations of Christians have varying concerns about Santa Claus. Some Christians even claim that Santa is a hidden representation of Satan. [5] They note that the name Santa Claus sounds a bit like the term "Satan's claws".
Most Christians believe that their own focus in the Christmas season should be placed on the birth of Jesus [6] and many would prefer this to be the focus of the festival in general[citation needed], though attitudes to this vary according to country. In addition, some parents are uncomfortable about lying to their children about the existence of Santa. This is a concern which both Christians and non-Christians may have on the general basis that it is wrong to systematically lie to one's children. Christians are also often concerned that the lie suggests, when it is revealed, that Christianity is also a childish belief which one grows out of, thus providing a model for the critics of religion. Those with such concerns may tell their children that Santa Claus is just a sort of game, a "pretend" activity. Those whose objections are more to the materialist nature of the modern festival but still wish to participate in the festive gift-giving atmosphere of "Santa season" will shop for toys to donate to poor children on St. Nicholas's feast day, December 6. This is an opportunity to instill the Christian value of secret charity, which Nicholas was known for. Although feast days are usually not acknowledged in Protestant denominations, this tradition has found acceptance there as well.