Holy Blasphemy

I was looking for something on Alibaba recently and saw a post I thought was funny – a giant inflatable Santa, but they had misspelled it to “Satan.” No big deal, but kind of funny. But I looked around some more, and there were several dozen different products making the same mistake.

You’d think if they couldn’t speak or spell in English, then they would’ve use a translator and been careful to copy the right letters.

Or maybe that’s just how they spell Santa in China.

And then there’s some posts like this, for a “Satan tube dress” or “Satan ribbon.”

It took me a minute, but I guess they were probably trying to spell “Satin” and got it wrong. Just a harmless spelling error.

But there’s more. Here’s one of my favorites:

A company that makes horoscope necklaces for the 12 planets spelled everything right, but spelled Saturn (planet for Capricorn) as “Satan.” They even spelled it right on the description but wrong on the actual necklace. That seems a bit devious.

It’s especially interesting because the planet Saturn, who’s tied to Chronos in mythology and depicted with a scythe, strongly influenced the mythology of Satan (and death, reaper of souls). Saturn is the old man god of winter that the sun/summer god has to destroy every year.

Then there are instances that tag on “Satan” or “for Satan” after the description, apparently for no reason. Here are some more Christmas decorations, including the “Satan angel of light.”

Here are some Men’s cycling pants.

And a “Satanic” bangle.

And this super creepy “Satan box.”

And for horse lovers, a Satan souvenir pendant that says “I love to ride.”

And a cute Valentine’s day silver heart pendant (that’s satanic).

Seriously, what’s going on?

My Chinese is passable but I haven’t figured out what’s getting lost in translation here.

Do you have an answer?