An illustration from an 18th century Icelandic manuscript depicting Huginn and Muninn sitting on the shoulders of Odin.

The thirteenth of December is Saint Lucia day and everything stops in the rookery for Saint Lucia celebrations. This is the time to bear light and give thanks for a year engaging in such a talented choir..
The Lucia tradition can be traced back both to St Lucia of Syracuse, a martyr who died in 304, and to the Swedish legend of Lucia as Adam’s first wife. It is said that she consorted with the Devil and that her children were invisible infernals. Thus the name may be associated with both lux (light) and Lucifer (Satan), and its origins are difficult to determine. The present custom appears to be a blend of traditions.
In the old almanac, Lucia Night was the longest of the year. It was a dangerous night when supernatural beings were abroad and all animals could speak. By morning, the livestock needed extra feed. People, too, needed extra nourishment and were urged to eat seven or nine hearty breakfasts. This kind of feasting presaged the Christmas fast, which began on Lucia Day.
The last person to rise that morning was nicknamed ‘Lusse the Louse’ and often given a playful beating round the legs with birch twigs. The slaughtering and threshing were supposed to be over by Lucia and the sheds to be filled with food in preparation for Christmas. In agrarian Sweden, young people used to dress up as Lucia figures (lussegubbar) that night and wander from house to house singing songs and scrounging for food and schnapps.
The first recorded appearance of a white-clad Lucia in Sweden was in a country house in 1764. The custom did not become universally popular in Swedish society until the 20th century, when schools and local associations in particular began promoting it. The old lussegubbar custom virtually disappeared with urban migration, and white-clad Lucias with their singing processions were considered a more acceptable, controlled form of celebration than the youthful carousals of the past. Stockholm proclaimed its first Lucia in 1927. The custom whereby Lucia serves coffee and buns (lussekatter) dates back to the 1880s, although the buns were around long before that.
by Agneta Lilja, Södertörn University College

When I was a traveller child in Ireland, a Christmas tradition that made a great impression on me was the candle in the window - this was lit on Christmas Eve and was meant to symbolise a welcome for the Holy Family - but in a land where so many families had been torn apart by post famine migration, and where traveller families were often oceans apart at Christmas, it was also a touching act of faith for those who would not be part of the family circle that year - that the lighting of the candle would help them find their way home.
I still light a candle in the window every Christmas Eve, to welcome the wayfarer and to call the lost ones home. Christmas is a time of reunion and as the song says - `someday soon we all will be together."
Gail Kavanagh
On Saint Lucia Day Ravens will keep the flame alight. Small flames will appear around the globe. For twenty four hours a flame will be alight somewhere around the world.
Take the time to make your own candles for Saint Lucia Day. |