Lucia (St Lucy's Day) - 13th December

Classic St. Lucia image by Jenny Nyström
(Swedish artist, 1854-1946)

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Saint Lucy's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Lucy, is a Christian feast day observed on 13 December. The observance commemorates Lucia of Syracuse, an early-fourth-century virgin martyr under the Diocletianic Persecution. According to legend, she brought food and aid to Christians hiding in the Roman catacombs, wearing a candle-lit wreath on her head to light her way, leaving both hands free to carry as much food as possible. Because her name means "light" and her feast day had at one time coincided with the shortest day of the year prior to calendar reforms, it is now widely celebrated as a festival of light. Falling within the Advent season, Saint Lucy's Day is viewed as a precursor of Christmastide, pointing to the arrival of the Light of Christ in the calendar on 25 December, Christmas Day.

Saint Lucy's Day is celebrated most widely in Scandinavia, Italy and the island nation of Saint Lucia, each emphasising a different aspect of her story. In Scandinavia, where Lucy is called Santa/Sankta Lucia, she is represented as a woman in a white dress symbolizing a baptismal robe and a red sash symbolizing the blood of her martyrdom, with a crown or wreath of candles on her head. In Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Swedish-speaking regions of Finland, as songs are sung, girls dressed as Saint Lucy carry cookies and saffron buns in procession, which symbolizes bringing the Light of Christ into the world's darkness.

I tried to persuade Barbie and Skipper to dress up as St Lucia with maid, but they weren't happy with the outcome. They complained both about my skills as a dressmaker, and my failure to find any kind of candles to fit the wreaths that I made for them out of garden wire. They also pointed out that with their arms tied like that, they couldn't possibly hold neither trays nor candles! So I reluctantly agreed that we'd probably better skip the whole Lucia thing... Upon which they immediately changed into more comfortable clothes and set off out to look for a Christmas tree instead - in spite of me reminding them that no tree is going to be decorated here until next weekend! 

 

3rd Advent Sunday and St Lucy's Day

 

Today is the 3rd Advent Sunday; and tomorrow (13th December) here in Sweden we celebrate "Lucia", or St Lucy's day. 

It's been another snowy week here. They say that we can expect milder weather and thaw during the week to come; but yesterday, we just had top-up of more snow... I went for a short walk in the old cemetery nearby, but decided against walking all the way into town. 

 

Instead, I stayed home in the afternoon, and did some more baking. 'Lucia buns' (saffron bread) this time... It's been a few years since I last made those. Sometimes I've made a loaf of saffron bread in my bread machine instead. But the last couple of times I tried that (last year + a couple of weeks ago), the result was not good. The dough rose too much, only to then collapse in the middle, and in the end the loaf turned out a weird shape with a hard crust, falling apart when cut... I decided it's probably time to junk that machine, and go back to the traditional way of baking!

 

I'm out of practice with the manual baking of these buns, though. Below is an image of what I was aiming for (with those on the left above)... Ah well. At least they turned out edible!

 

 

Today, I went for another snowy walk around the cemetery - for air, light and exercise.

 

In the afternoon, I watched a local Lucia/Christmas concert "live online" - from our biggest church downtown, courtesy of the local newspaper, on their website. (Cast from my tablet onto my TV screen.)

 

 

Recipes for Swedish saffron buns and gingerbread biscuits from sweden.se

December 13 - Friday - St Lucy's Day

From Lund Cathedral (Skåne, Sweden)

On 13th December here in Scandiavia we celebrate Lucia or St. Lucy's Day; a festival of light which in the past coincided with the Winter Solstice.

Lucia is celebrated in both private and public contexts. In most towns in Sweden, an official Lucia with a number of maids are elected at the beginning of December. They then spend 2-3 weeks visiting public places like hospitals and nursing homes, singing traditional Lucia songs and Christmas carols. Churches and schools and workplaces etc often have their own Lucia celebrations on the 13th of December as well.

 

Classic Lucia illustration by Jenny Nyström (1854-1946)
(God Jul = Merry Christmas)

St Lucy was a 3rd century martyr in Rome. According to legend she brought food and aid to persecuted Christians hiding in the catacombs, wearing a candle-lit wreath to light her way and leaving her hands free to carry as much food as possible. Nowadays she brings coffee and saffron buns and ginger biscuits - early in the morning while it is still dark.

(If you write Lucia into the search box on top of my blog, it will bring up more Lucia posts of mine from years gone by.)