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Back on the second day of Hannukah, I mentioned that I believed in celebrating every possible festival of lights, and commentor Currants reminded me not to miss the Scandinavian version of St. Lucia Day. From Wikipedia:
In Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Norway, and Finland, Lucy (called Lucia) it is venerated on December 13 in a ceremony where a girl is elected to portray Lucia. Wearing a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head, she walks at the head of a procession of women, each holding a candle… The women sing a Lucia song while entering the room, to the melody of the traditional Neapolitan song Santa Lucia; the Italian lyrics describe the view from Santa Lucia in Naples, the various Scandinavian lyrics are fashioned for the occasion, describing the light with which Lucia overcomes the darkness.
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The Nordic observation of St. Lucy is first attested in the Middle Ages, and continued after the Protestant Reformation in the 1520s and 1530s, although the modern celebration is only about 200 years old. It is likely that tradition owes its popularity in the Nordic countries to the extreme change in daylight hours between the seasons in this region.
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The pre-Christian holiday of Yule, or jól, was the most important holiday in Scandinavia and Northern Europe. Originally the observance of the winter solstice, and the rebirth of the sun, it brought about many practices that remain in the Advent and Christmas celebrations today. The Yule season was a time for feasting, drinking, gift-giving, and gatherings, but also the season of awareness and fear of the forces of the dark.
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Lussinatta, the Lussi Night, was December 13. Then Lussi, a female being with evil traits, like a female demon or witch, was riding through the air with her followers, called Lussiferda. This itself might be an echo of the myth of the Wild Hunt, called Oskoreia in Scandinavia, found across Northern, Western and Central Europe.
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Between Lussi Night and Yule, trolls and evil spirits, in some accounts also the spirits of the dead, were thought to be active outside. It was particularly dangerous to be out during Lussi Night. Children who had done mischief had to take special care, since Lussi could come down through the chimney and take them away, and certain tasks of work in the preparation for Yule had to be finished, or else the Lussi would come to punish the household. The tradition of Lussevaka – to stay awake through the Lussinatt to guard oneself and the household against evil, has found a modern form through throwing parties until daybreak. Another company of spirits might come riding through the night around Yule itself, journeying through the air, over land and water.
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A happy Lussevaka to all! May the Wild Hunt pass over your homes without pausing, and your lights banish all spirits of dissension and ill-wishing.
stuckinred
My x had Lucia for a middle name and her parents would make her do the candles in the hair gig every year. I don’t think it did her severe damage but she didn’t care much for it!
PeakVT
Possibly posted earlier: Video of the Metrodome collapsing from the inside.
ETA: There was somebody out the floor when the collapse started. Quite a sprinter, it turns out.
WarMunchkin
celebrating every possible festival of lights = big electricity bill?
In my continued anti-poorhouse defense, I’ve been researching how to rip corporations off via coupon spamming in advance of returning stateside. Whos a good wittle socialist who is who is
FYWP. Socialist.
Neddie Jingo
Word to the wise: Those candles in the headgear have carried off more than one jungfröken in a rather un-Yule-like burst of flames. Extreme care advised.
When I was a youngster in Finland, we had actual honest-to-goodness candles in the Christmas tree. Lit for the two minutes it took to take a glorious photograph, with a large bucket of water handy to correct errors of placement.
Some beautiful Dark Age traditions: What were they thinking?
SiubhanDuinne
@stuckinred: I always thought the candles-in-the-hair thing was pretty, but probably terrifying for the “Lucia” whose hair could actually catch fire at any moment.
Hope Lil Bit and the Bodhi had an uneventful night back safely at home. Poor guys.
JWL
The Church be praised, it’s women to be fearing. Stay up all night, one night a year, with a keen lookout for the wee ones, and God Bless Saint Lucia and Father McBugger.
HRA
Thank you and Happy Lussevaka to you as well.
The children and I celebrated the day for years. Sweet memories of days past.
aimai
Oh my god–we celebrated Lucia all the time when I was a little girl. We had swedish au pairs. My sister and I would dress up in my father’s dress shirts which were like long white robes on us. My brother would be the “star boy” in a blue and silver hat, the babysitters would wear the candles in their hair, and we would serve our parents cookies in bed while singing. Years later when we were in Sweden for the Nobel I was woken in the hotel by the same ceremony–the staff came in with cookies, lights, and song. I was so surprised! And yet it was so miraculously right. As HRA says sweet, sweet, memories.
aimai
WereBear (itouch)
In the movie The Ref there’s a great dining room scene with this tradition.
That’s one of our Christmas movies, every year.
BD of MN
the candles on the head reminds me of “The Ref” with Denis Leary and Kevin Spacey…
stuckinred
@SiubhanDuinne: Yea, they seem fine. Of course I found a website that says the whole killer raisin deal is a hoax. I’m sure the doggie insurance company will have a position.
Cheryl from Maryland
I love how northern european countries created something positive from the tale of St. Lucia (Lucy), who was martyred by having her eyes plucked out with a fork.
JPL
A.L., That was beautiful.
For all the dog owners out in blog land, any hints on getting a pup to sleep. I’m dog sitting and the pup is suppose to sleep in a crate at night. Yeah, right! That’s not working and my mutt and I need our sleep.
Ash Can
@Neddie Jingo:
I just love the turn of this phrase. :) And that does sound like quite the adventure. My elderly mother recalls the days when people here in Chicago (largely immigrants from northern Europe, and including her family) used candles on Christmas trees. The thought of it frightens me.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Two of our kitties are getting cabin fever. Freddy is tormenting the other cats and just plain rowdy and Sammy prefers the outdoors to the stuffy home life. Sammy is yowling his lament to let us know his displeasure. Freddy is following me around like a dog, trying to find something interesting in it. Last night he watched me clean and wax our floors the whole time. I would strip a section and he would go check it out while I did the next one. It must have been clean because he would then plop down on it until I completed the next section.
I had to cage him when I waxed or we would have a paw-printed and furry floor!
Bobbi is the good kitty. Ok, good if you are me…lol! If anyone else tries to pick her up she will rip them to shreds (if they are stupid enough to ignore the spitting and hissing). She looks like a little sweetie but she is all teeth and claws if you aren’t me. I’m in the garage on a laptop and she’s now snoozing on top of one of my workbenches, just to the right side of the laptop screen so I can easily reach over and scratch her ears while she’s snoozing. All three are rescues (ok, Freddy is a visitor who came and never left, must be the good food) but she is a former feral Manx (jacked up ass-end, low front end, shortened spine, rumpy) who never liked anyone who came near her.
Put it this way, our old vet wanted to know who handled her because they couldn’t. They called me to come back in (after dropping her off) so he could examine her. She was fine and he didn’t charge me for the visit. I think he was embarrassed because when I came in she acted like a kitten when she saw me, mewing and purring loudly. Once I was holding her she let him examine her…lol
My wife says that she acts like a little baby around me but she’s really an independent cat that doesn’t take any shit off of any other animal. I watched her yowl, hiss, spit, bare her teeth and urinate to convince a pitbull to stay out of our yard. I watched that showdown from the second floor of our house, ready to run down and dive in if necessary. It wasn’t. The dog just stood its ground, staring at her. She stood her ground doing the things I described above.
He decided it wasn’t worth it. That little girl impressed the hell out of me. What’s really funny is that our next door neighbors have two ‘dustmop’ doggies and she wanders around in the yard with them all of the time. One of them (Toby) likes to bounce around her, yapping his head off and trying to get her to join him in playing with his tennis ball. The other (Mia) is very quiet and I find her and Bobbi often nose to nose, quietly sniffing each other. Their lady owner thinks this is really cute (I have to agree) and thought she would be ok in approaching Bobbi to pet her.
Bobbi quickly let her know that while she was happy to accept her dogs she wasn’t willing to accept the owner…lol! No scratch or bite, just a polite hiss and a little show of teeth.
She’s a cute little kitteh. :)
A Humble Lurker
I actually participated in this. If I had candles in my hair they went unlit, but I know I held a lit one.
I don’t know what the hell we were doing there, though. We’re not Lutherans.
Plato
Living as I do in Norway, I have already heard that song several times today. Both of my daughters were lucky enough to be Lucia at their daycare, which is where it is really celebrated these days.
Have also eaten several of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lussekatt
which is a traditional wheat bun eaten on this day.
Maody
The candles in the hair, scary. Growing up we had Lutheran friends whose christmas tree always had real candles on it. No one could leave the living room at night it was so gloriously beautiful. There was never a fire and they always had a live tree as their dad was a nurseryman. I think they were more German than Scandinavian.
Omnes Omnibus
When I was a child, my grandfather would do the whole yule log thing on Christmas Eve. Good times.
Patrick Keeler
LOL! The answer is unknowable with what we have, but it is fun to wonder what about St. Lucy made some catholic proselytizer use her as a substitute for whatever heathen figure(s) were celebrated originally. Was it her adamant desire to remain a virgin? Her lack of eyes? Or simply her name?
One thing I’m certain of, the figure was hardly evil. Who dresses up a chosen maiden in a white dress with a crown of light to worship an evil witch? The witch thing was a late backtracking by the church and applied to many figures including Freya, Holda, Perchta, Frau Holle, and others.
chopper
i’m going to celebrate by listening to cradle of filth. there, that’s better.
Gus
@stuckinred: How well does doggy insurance work? I just spent 3 grand on surgeries for my dog after having spend nearly 5 on my other dog last year.
hilzoy
I was Lucia when I was little. With real candles. Yesterday my extended family did Lucia again, with my three year old niece as Lucia and her brother (5) as the star boy. But we’ve graduated to battery-powered candles.
It was lovely.
Neddie Jingo
Funny, that “Lucia” song pops up again as “La Donna è Mobile” from Verdi’s “Rigoletto.”
I’ll leave it to others to fathom the contradictions between the two:
La donna è mobile
Qual piuma al vento,
Muta d’accento — e di pensiero.
Suffice to say, it’s a tad ironic.
techno
Should you want to see a really NICE celebration of Lucia from the Domkyrka of Vaxjo Sweden last year, the links can be found here.