I wasn’t sure whether there were going to be any ice sculptures in the town square this year, as we also have the Buddy Bears exhibition going on… But we got the ice sculpture as well - and not just one, but three!
The theme this year is seedpods. The big one in the middle was carved by the same experienced ice sculptor as previous years, Ragnhild Sandelius Brodow, who has worked with the Icehotel at Jukkasjärvi near Kiruna far up in the north of Sweden. (That entire hotel is made of ice, including furniture and even the glasses in the bar. Follow the link to read more.) She got help with the two smaller ones by two local people.
The artists worked all day, and in the afternoon, as darkness fell, they were finished:
We also had the official crowning of Borås Lucia:
In Scandinavia, Lucia (St. Lucy) is venerated on December 13 in a ceremony where a girl is elected to be Lucia. Wearing white and a crown of candles on her head, she walks at the head of a procession of more girls (and sometimes boys too). They sing Christmas carols and songs about St Lucy bringing light in the darkness. In one story about the Italian Saint Lucy who is supposed to be the origin of this tradition, she was working to help Christians hiding in the catacombs during the terror under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and in order to bring with her as many supplies as possible, she needed to have both hands free. She solved this problem by attaching candles to a wreath on her head.
In Sweden it is common for each town to elect their own official Lucia with maids who go round to all sorts of places (like hospitals and nursing homes and schools and churches) during the month of December and sing their songs and collect money for charity.
I wasn’t standing close enough to be able to get good photos of the Lucia show, but the sound in the video came out good. It’s an Advent song (in Swedish):
The show ended with a short display of fireworks:
And then Lucia and her maids rode in a horse-drawn cart around the town square:
Happy 2nd Advent Sunday to you all!
Linking to Straight Out of the Camera Sunday
(Most of the photos are straight-out-of, only the close-ups of Lucia and the fireworks were edited a little.)
13 comments:
O what a beautiful event! Love the night scenes, but especially love the art of the ice sculptures in the night lights!
I am listening to the song, it makes chills on my arms even though I don't understand it, so beautiful and the ice sculptures are wonderful. I love this view of your home town.
I would love to see those personally ~ never had. I did see some wonderful sand sculptures in person, and that was awesome too.
Wonderful pictures! The ice sculptures are so pretty with the lights inside them!!! How long will they last, and don't the lights melt them? Pretty singing!
An excellent evening out. I hope you don't get a warm spell.
Great photos. The Ice Sculptures are beautiful. Such wonderful pieces of art. I bet it was very interesting seeing them take their shape.
really wonderful photos - puts me in the holiday spirit!
This was very beautiful! I was listening to the song while looking at the pictures, and - but for the cold - it almost felt as if I'd been there with you. Thank you for posting this!
The fireworks look as if they were VERY close to the people, but I am sure all necessary precautions were taken :-)
Ginny, how long the ice sculptures will last depends on the weather (I don't think the lights have much to do with it). Just now we're in a cold spell so hopefully they'll last a while.
Meike, the fireworks were of the kind that sparkle from the ground (not fired off high up in the sky). They were also with the sculptures on a kind of terrace a few steps up from the rest of the square, so not quite so close to the crowd as it may seem in the photo.
What a lovely event and so informatively portrayed for us. The voices were so clear and beautiful too. On odd occasions like that I could enjoy the cold crisp evenings.
I walked home from town after the event. I certainly felt like I'd been out all evening (especially since it was very cold, and I'd also been into town in the morning). When I got in I looked at the clock in the hall. It showed 5 p.m. I had only been gone 1½ hour. In which we'd gone from sunset to pitch dark, and the temperature had dropped about 4 degrees as well... (from -5 to -9)
What a magical night it must have been, love the ice sculptures.
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