The present custom appears to be a blend of traditions. You eat them with glögg, Swedish mulled wine, or coffee. The Lucia celebrations also include gingerbread biscuits and sweet, saffron-flavoured buns ( lussekatter) shaped like curled-up cats and with raisin eyes. On the morning of Lucia Day, the radio plays some rather more expert renderings, by school choirs or the like. The night treads heavily around yards and dwellings In places unreached by sun, the shadows brood Into our dark house she comes, bearing lighted candles, Saint Lucia, Saint Lucia.Īll Swedes know the standard Lucia song by heart, and everyone can sing it, in or out of tune. The many Lucia songs all have the same theme: Lucia is an ancient mythical figure with an abiding role as a bearer of light in the dark Swedish winters. Lucia − the bearer of lightĪlongside Midsummer, the Lucia celebrations represent one of the foremost cultural traditions in Sweden, with their clear reference to life in the peasant communities of old: darkness and light, cold and warmth. Today, no national ‘Lucia of Sweden’ is elected and schools often let chance decide who’s to be Lucia, for example by organising a draw. Local newspapers invited subscribers to vote for one or other of the candidates. There used to be a competition for the role of Lucia – on national TV as well as on a local level in towns and schools all over the country. The Christmas elves bring up the rear, carrying small lanterns. The star boys, who are dressed in white gowns like the handmaidens, carry stars on sticks and have tall paper cones on their heads. Parents gather in the dark with their mobile cameras at the ready. Each of her handmaidens carries a candle, too. Tradition has it that Lucia is to wear ‘light in her hair’, which in practice means a crown of electric candles in a wreath on her head. The real candles are now sometimes replaced with battery-powered ones, but there is still a special atmosphere when the lights are dimmed and the sound of the children singing grows as they enter from an adjacent room. The annual candlelit Lucia procession on 13 December is perhaps one of the more exotic-looking Swedish customs, with girls and boys clad in white full-length gowns singing songs together. Photo: Cecilia Larsson Lantz/ What does midwinter have to do with white gowns and candles? It’s Swedish Lucia!
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