Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia

Around Christmas time in Sweden, one of the biggest celebrations is St. Lucia's Day (or St. Lucy's Day) on December 13th. The celebration comes from stories that were told by Monks who first brought Christianity to Sweden.

St Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred, killed for her faith, in 304AD. The most common story told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She would wear candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things. Lucy means 'light' so this is a very appropriate name.

December 13th was also the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, in the old Julian Calendar, and a pagan festival of lights in Sweden was turned into St. Lucia's Day.
St. Lucia's Day is now celebrated by a girl dressing in a white dress with a red sash round her waist and a crown of candles on her head. The crown is made of Lingonberry branches which are evergreen and symbolise new life in winter. Schools normally have their own St. Lucias and some town and villages also choose a girl to play St. Lucia in a procession where carols are sung.

For various and sundry Holdenesque reasons, all valid, St. Lucia's Day was observed on Thursday, December 18. All of the children in the village were dressed in white robes tied with red sashes and participated in the celebration. Olaf Coffey and August Carpenter were Star Boys and Nyrie Mietzke, Ellie Vegdahl-Crowell, and Jordyn Mietzke served as the younger girls of the group.

Grace Coffey, Raina Rerucha-Borges, and Marta Vegdahl-Crowell balance their crowns of lighted candles and listen to those gathered in the dining hall sing Sankta Lucia...in Swedish!

August and Nyrie bring a tray of food to the table of Carole Young. All of the children participated in serving the tables of those in the dining hall.

On each tray was a large loaf of freshly-baked and still warm saffron bread. To accompany the bread, there were dishes of sugar, and jam, and butter, and a small pitcher of warm cream.

Raina and Jordyn serve hot chocolate to a table of guests.

Jordyn was ready to offer marshmallows to accompany the hot chocolate.

Olaf took his job as a Star Boy very seriously. As the youngest, he led the procession into the dining hall and participated fully in serving the guests.

(There were no unfortunate accidents of burns by either hot wax or flames.)