The Christmas season in Sweden begins on 13 December, the winter solstice of the old ‘Julian’ pagan calendar, with the celebration of St. Lucia: the event symbolises the return of the light and new life in winter. Children dress all in white, with head wreaths and candles, ready to sing angelic hymns at ceremonies held in schools, workplaces, churches and community halls. At the centre there is a young woman, the ‘Lucia bride‘ or the bearer of light, with a crown of lit candles (or electric candles) atop her head. The real candles are now sometimes replaced with battery-powered ones, but there is still a special atmosphere when the lights are dimmed and the sound of the children singing grows as they enter from an adjacent room. Each of her handmaidens carries a candle, too while the star boys, dressed in white gowns like the handmaidens, carry stars on sticks and have tall paper cones on their heads. The Christmas elves bring up the rear, carrying small lanterns. There used to be a competition for the role of Lucia, on national TV as well as on a local level in towns and schools all over Sweden, but nowadays no national ‘Lucia of Sweden’ is elected. The Lucia celebrations represent one of the foremost cultural traditions in Sweden, with their clear reference to life in the peasant communities of old: darkness and light, cold and warmth, and Lucia is an ancient mythical figure with an abiding role as a bearer of light in the dark Swedish winters. All Swedes know the standard Lucia song by heart, and the many Lucia songs all have the same theme:
The night treads heavily
around yards and dwellings
In places unreached by sun,
the shadows brood
Into our dark house she comes,
bearing lighted candles,
Saint Lucia, Saint Lucia.
The Lucia celebrations also include gingerbread biscuits and sweet, saffron-flavoured buns (lussekatter) shaped like curled-up cats and with raisin eyes. You eat them with glögg, Swedish mulled wine, or coffee. The Lucia tradition can be traced back both to the martyr St Lucia of Syracuse (died in 304) and to the Swedish legend of Lucia as Adam’s first wife. The name may be associated with lux (light) but its origins are difficult to determine.
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