Each culture adapts fictional, historical, and apocryphal figures “to taste”. Whether Yeshua Ben Maryum (“Jesus” to the Greeks) or Papa Noel (Father Christmas, or St. Nick if you will), we shape icons to suit our storytelling community. Such figures are depicted differently, attired, and bear disparate characteristics in different places. Their names even change from country to country (i.e. Greek and Roman deities). To paraphrase a fellow journalist on a recent trip, “History is told for the benefit of the teller…”.
In nations such as Cuba, Africans and their descendants re-imagined Catholic saints to square with the attribures of Yoruba “counterparts”. We make our heroes and princesses fit our mindset and fulfill our archetypal needs. To that end Travel Educator Kelly Westhoff takes a look at the enduring Cinderella fable as assimilated by various nations:
http://www.gonomad.com/theerfiles/2009/06/multi-cultural-cinderlla-story.html#links
