Friday 13 December 2013

13th December: Lucia – St Lucy’s Day

Lucia

Lucia, or St Lucy’s Day, is one of the very few saint days observed in Scandinavia. Usually a procession is headed by one girl (Lucia) wearing a crown of candles, while the rest in the procession hold only a single candle each. In private context, the tradition is that Lucia comes very early in the morning, bringing coffee, lussekatter, and ginger biscuits.

The original of the Lucia image above was painted by Jenny Nyström (1854-1946), an illustrator best known as creator of the Swedish jultomte by linking the Santa Claus tradition to the gnomes of Scandinavian folklore in her images.

(If you want to see more of her pictures, just do a Google Images search on her name.)

PS. For photos from the crowning of my town’s Lucia (at the Christmas Market last Saturday), see my other blog: DawnTreader’s Picture Book - FMTSO: What Lights Up My Town in December

5 comments:

  1. Ha en skön Lucia, jag kikade på luciafirandet på svt.se imorse :) mysigt

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  2. i remember your post from the past that showed the girls walking with the candles.. these paintings are beautiful..

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  3. I remember last year's (?) post on here, too, about St. Lucia and the procession. It is not something done here in Germany, at least not in my (prevalently protestant) area, but I like the idea of a "Queen of Light" at this dark time of the year.

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  4. I love the last picture with the one child drawing the attention of the other child to the scene: you can almost feel his excitement.

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  5. Another Friday 13th (Black Friday) here, and for you St.Lucia Day.....I think I prefer your day.

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