i have a bunch of swedish friends and they have taken me to the santa lucia event at a church here in atlanta and it is so pretty and beautiful if you get a chance please go - all the songs were in swedish but they were so pretty ---
oh and little boys wear like wizards hats with stars on them - i dont know why maybe C does???
no stepping on toes...but found this
Throughout Sweden the feast day of Lucia, or Lucy, is celebrated as a festival of lights. In the early hours of the morning of December 13 a young woman, dressed in a white gown, and wearing a red sash and a crown of lingonberry twigs and blazing candles, would go from one farm to the next carrying a torch to light her way, bringing baked goods, stopping to visit at each house and returning home by break of day. Every village had its own Lucia. The custom is thought to have begun in some of the richer farming districts of Sweden and still persists although the crowns are now electric lights.
In Norway and Sweden it is still a custom on December 13 for a girl in a white dress (representing the Saint), to bring a tray of saffron buns and steaming coffee to wake the family. She is called the "Lussibrud" (Lucy bride) and her pastry (saffron buns) is Lussekattor. Today many families have a Lucia-Queen in their own home, often the youngest daughter, who wakes the rest of the family with song.
Lucia symbolizes light and growth for human and beast as she emerges out of the darkness. She is said to have been beheaded by the sword during the persecutions of Diocletian at Catania in Sicily. Her body was later brought to Constantinople and finally to Venice, where she is now resting in the church of Santa Lucia. Because her name means "light" she very early became the great patron saint for the "light of the body"--the eyes. Many of the ancient light and fire customs of the Yuletide became associated with her day. Thus we find "Lucy candles" lighted in the homes and "Lucy fires" burned in the outdoors. Before the Reformation Saint Lucy's Day was one of unusual celebration and festivity because, for the people of Sweden and Norway, she was the great "light saint" who turned the tides of their long winter and brought the light of the day to renewed victory.
Before the calendar reform, her original feast day (the day of her martyrdom) happened to fall on the shortest day of the year. The winter solstice was December 13 by the Julian calendar rather than December 21, which it became with the change to the Gregorian calendar in the 1300s, linking it with the far older Yule and Winter festivals of pre-Christian times. Lucy's lore survived the Reformation and calendar reform, which brought the solstice to December 23.
Another Scandianavian custom was for children, on the eve of December 13, to write the word "Lussi" on doors, fences, and walls. In ancient times the purpose of this practice was to announce to the demons of winter that their reign was broken on Saint Lucy's Day, that the sun would return again and the days become longer. "Lucy fires" used to be burned in many parts of northern Europe on December 13. Into the bonfires people would throw incense, and while the flames rose, trumpets and flutes were playing to celebrate the changing of the suns's course.
From Weiser, The Holyday Book
i found a pic of the wizards hats ... its a cartoon but still
and here is the song in swedish and english
Sankta Lucia
Natten går tunga fjät runt gård och stuva.
Kring jord som sol förlät, skuggorna ruva.
Då i vårt mörka hus, stiger med tända ljus,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.
Natten var stor och stum. Nu hör, det svingar,
i alla tysta rum, sus som av vingar.
Se på vår tröskel står vitkläd, med ljus i hår,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.
Mörkret skall flykta snart ur jordens dalar.
Så hon ett underbart ord till oss talar.
Dagen skall åter gry, stiga ur rosig sky,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.
In English
Sankta Lucia
Nightly, go heavy hearts
Round farm and steading
On earth, where sun departs,
shadows are spreading.
Then on our darkest night,
Comes with her shining light
Sankta Lucia! Sankta Lucia!
Then on our darkest night,
Comes with her shining light
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.
Night-darkling, huge and still.
Hark, something's stirring!
In all our silent rooms,
Wingbeats are whisp'ring!
Stands on our threshold there,
White clad, lights in her hair,
Sankta Lucia! Sankta Lucia!
Stands on our threshold there,
White clad, lights in her hair,
Sankta Lucia! Sankta Lucia!
Darkness shall fly away
Through earthly portals.
She brings such wonderful
words to us mortals!
Daylight, again renewed,
will rise, all rosy-hued!
Sankta Lucia! Sankta Lucia!
Daylight, again renewed,
will rise, all rosy-hued.
Sankta Lucia! Sankta Lucia!
ahhhhh ha!!!
and i found this...
Lucia Celebration
According to legend, Lucia was a medieval saint who carried food and drink to hungry folk in the province of Värmland during a period of famine. She was seen across lake Vänern with her white gown and crown of lights, much like today's Lucia costume with the same gown and crown.
The Lucia legend is said to have originated in Syracuse on the island of Sicily. A young girl about to be a bride gave her entire dowry to the poor of her village and admitted she had become Christian. She was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake on December 13, 304 AD. Much later in history, the early church made her a saint, Santa Lucia.
Italian artists sometimes picture her as a blind girl holding a lamp. There are many legends, but in each one Lucia stands for the symbol of light and hope to mankind. Santa Lucia's coming begins the feasting, merriment, singing and the spirit of friendliness and goodwill that lasts all through the holidays.
Selma Lagerlöf's Lucia legend tells of the good wife of a mean nobleman, distributing food to starving farmers. This is the legend that caught on in Sweden. And when a Swedish text was put to an Italian song (about a very needy Neapolitan harbour area) the Swedish Lucia came of age.
When, in the 1920s, a Stockholm newspaper arranged a contest to choose a Lucia-girl to represent the city, the custom spread like wildfire.
Today Lucia morning is celebrated in practically every Swedish home, and every community, office, school or club chooses a Lucia who - dressed in a white gown and with a crown of candles in her hair - brings a tray of coffee, traditionally shaped saffron rolls, and ginger cookies. She is usually accompanied by a train of white-clad attendants, the girls wearing glitter in their hair and the boys wearing tall paper cones with stars on their heads.
They all sing the traditional Lucia carols.
xoxo
