Today is St. Lucia day in Sweden. You can see a short video of the celebrations below:
Girls in white gowns carry candles sing beautiful songs and walk slowly down the isle of the church, a procession headed by a girl wearing a crown of candles. I saw my first St. Lucia celebration in my first year of university, when my department put on a mini version in London. Now it makes me feel ever-so christmassy, and with just 12 days to go, it marks the perfect start to a christmas count-down.
The day is in celebration of Saint Lucy, or Santa Lucia. Saint days are not very common in Scandinavia and I think that might be why this one is so special. St Lucia day has links to pagan beliefs and as you can imagine, in the cold mid-winter of the Nordic region, a celebration of lights would have been very important.
What do you think? Is this an important day where you are? We don't celebrate anything in England on this day, but I really like watching the Swedish celebrations. You can find a lot more videos by searching 'st. lucia sweden' on youtube. Some of the singers are really stunning!
