St. Lucia's Day

Today is the celebration of Lucia, a martyr from the ancient Italy that we celebrate here in Sweden - sounds odd huh?

In our dark winter she brings light to us, and for that we welcome her and walk in procession with white robes, red ribbons and burning candles, singing songs to honor her and the coming of Christmas. In the front of the procession one girl carries a crown of candles, as in the photo below.

Judith Pierce Rosenberg puts it like this on her website A Swedish Kitchen:

"In Sweden, the festivities of Lucia Day begin early in the morning, with costumed children bringing their parents breakfast in bed. But in Sweden the holiday continues, with Lucia processions in schools, hospitals, offices, factories, even on SAS flights. There are also Lucia competitions, with young women vying to represent their community. Perhaps the most spectacular of these takes place in Stockholm where the city's Lucia is crowned by the writer who three days earlier was awarded that year's Nobel Prize in Literature.

There is something oddly moving, almost mystical, about the Lucia procession, the young people entering the darkened room with their candles, their high voices solemnly singing of the heavy silence of the winter night and the sudden arrival of the light-clad saint. Symbolizing the light of faith and the promise of the sun's return, Santa Lucia has become a Swedish icon of winter, nearly as popular as Jultomte, the Swedish Santa Claus. Although Lucia Day, in its modern, secular incarnation, has only been celebrated on a national scale in Sweden since the 1920s, variations of today's celebration can be traced throughout Swedish history to the Middle Ages and beyond to the 4th century martyrdom of a Sicilian virgin named Lucia."

The photo comes from Veckobladet, en tidning från Högskolan i Borås