St. Lucia Day Remembrances

Outside it was dark and chilly, as I watched my little daughter, Mary, bringing up the rear of the procession and swinging her basket, trying to keep up with all the other young girls following behind the "Lucia Bride".

My daughter was only two and a half, and I'll never forget that December night twenty-three years ago, as our church first attempted what has now become tradition: our Annual St. Lucia Procession.

Two-and-a-half year old Mary,
 in her little white dress and red sash.

By the time Mary was about seven or eight, American Girl Dolls and their books were becoming more and more popular, and my daughter loved all the stories.  Of course, her favorite was about Kirsten, the Swedish girl.  Mary could hardly wait to be St. Lucia and wear a crown, like her Kirsten doll.

And the day finally came. Mary was beaming, as she took her turn portraying St. Lucia, wearing the crown of candles and leading the procession of girls in white around the church, with the choir singing in the background; she was fourteen.

Happy St. Lucia Day! I hope you make it a family tradition to celebrate - I found a tutorial for a cute paper Lucia crown (here), and you can make some Lussekatter and read St. Lucia's story...

Do you have a daughter who is interested in knowing why girls wear white dresses with red sashes, balance a crown of candles on their heads, and carry a platter of saffron buns on December 13th? And who exactly was this saintly Italian girl named Lucia, whose story the Scandinavians adopted? 

Katherine Bolger Hyde has done a wonderful job explaining the customs and the history behind St. Lucia Day, in her beautiful book, Lucia Saint of Light, illustrated by Daria Fisher (and there's a FREE offer right now with the book - more about that in a minute).

St. Lucia Day can't be celebrated properly without "Lussekatter" - Swedish Saffron Buns! (There's a recipe at the end of Katherine Hyde's book.)  My daughter always helped me make them, and her Kirsten Doll even came with a tiny tray of mini Lussekatter. Today I'll be baking a batch with my three little goddaughters for our Church celebration this weekend.

Click here to see all the variations - St. Lucia buns can be made
in different designs.  One year we made a Lucia braided bread crown.
[Source: Mylittlenorway.com]

Back to the picture book...it follows two parallel stories: of a modern-day girl named Lucy, and the 4th-Century saint named Lucia.  The tales are interwoven as Lucy prepares to celebrate her "nameday".  Her mother explains to her the origins of the story of St. Lucia, the background behind the traditions of her celebration, and her association with Sweden.  At the end of the book, you'll find the "Santa Lucia" song (with words and music), her icon, verses from her Feastday Aposticha, and a recipe for St. Lucia Buns.

Detailed illustrations from the book.

Where to find the book (and the "free" part I mentioned): Lucia, Saint of Light is now available as an engaging video! The publisher has a limited-time offer: When you buy a hardcover of Lucia, Saint of Light, you will receive the full 10-minute video, FREE (a $4.99 value)!  

Click HERE for more information about how to order the book and very well done video. Below is a short clip...

This is a blog hop, click HERE
to read other fun posts...

Thanks for letting me share some of our family memories and traditions with you on this special day, honoring a special girl.  And thank you to Heather, at Audrey Eclectic, for hosting this fun "blog procession" for St. Lucia Day. Click the image to the left to read all the other posts!

GIVEAWAY from Audrey Eclectic

I'm so happy to introduce you to my Mystery Guest today:  "Audrey Eclectic" folk-artist and fellow blogger, Heather Sleightholm.  She has partnered with me for my December Giveaway (more about that in a minute).

Let's hear it for social networking!
Through someone's Scandinavian Pinterest Board, I discovered Heather's beautiful artwork and, eventually, her thoughtful, meandering blog and lovely Etsy shop, both named Audrey Eclectic (after her young daughter, Audrey).

Audrey Eclectic, "God Jul Sisters"

After several conversations on Facebook and visiting each other's blogs, we gleefully discovered that we share many similar interests - Russia, iconography, all things Swedish (especially Tomte and St. Lucia), and books (especially those by Tasha Tudor and Jane Austen), to name a few.

Audrey Eclectic, "St. Lucia"

Before I tell you about our Giveaway, I thought I'd ask Heather some questions...

source

What were some of your favorite children's books, growing up; and what are a couple of your daughter's favorites now? 
Growing up I really loved books about ‘old timey days.’ The American Girl Dolls books were favorites of mine (I had Kirsten, which is probably where my love of Sweden comes from!) and I also loved the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My daughter is a book lover as well, and I can’t wait for her to start reading on her own! Right now her taste in books is really wide-ranging—she loves books by Lane Smith (John, Paul, George and Ben and Grandpa Green) as well as fairytales like Cinderella and she also likes the book The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren.

[Note to my readers, Lane Smith's books and illustrations are great - visit his website here.  Not to be missed: Princess Hyacinth, The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated]

When did you realize that you loved to draw/paint? Why folk art?
Drawing and painting has always been a part of me. I can’t remember not doing it! I drew all over furniture as a child, painted rocks as ‘paper weights’ to sell in my mom’s garage sales, and took art classes all through school and college. To me, making art is my ‘happy place.’ It’s almost like a source of meditation. My mind becomes quiet and calm when I’m painting or drawing. My focus on folk art came about gradually as I tried different types of painting. When I first started selling pieces here and there as an adult, they were actually watercolor paintings. Then I started getting more into collage and mixed media, so I moved more into acrylic paints. As mixed media became more prevalent though, I decided I wanted to move onto something that was more unique to me, and decided to move toward acrylic painting without the collage element, and the style that came most natural to me was a more folksy, naïve art style. I really enjoy Americana and European folk art, specifically Scandinavian folk art, so that is another draw to Sweden for me! So it’s been a bit of an evolution, and I hope that I keep trying new things and improving, although I think what I’m doing now (folk art) suits my personality and skills the best!

Audrey Eclectic "God Jul Tomtes"

Are you Swedish?
As far as I know I am NOT Swedish. Can you believe that!? Well, surely there’s some Swede in there somewhere—I’ve done a lot of research on ancestry.com and haven’t been able to find the actual point in which a family member got on a boat and came to America--- seems we’ve been here since about the beginning! My maiden name was Van Winkle, which is Dutch in origin. There’s also a healthy strain of English and a bit of German in my background. My married name is Sleightholm--- which comes out of North Yorkshire, UK (there’s a Sleightholme Moor there). However, some of my family research into that side of the family leads me to believe that “Sleightholm” (which sounds Scandinavian, doesn’t it?) might have been a name created by Viking settlers in Britain. So perhaps…in a very round about way hundreds of years ago….there’s a dash of Scandinavian in my background!

So - on to the Giveaway.  Heather will send a lucky someone this beautiful set of 6 (six) "God Jul" postcards and envelopes.  

All you need to do to enter the Giveaway is to leave a comment here, or "like" or comment on the link to this post on my Good Books Facebook Page.  
My December Giveaway ends tomorrow, December 1st, at 11:00 a.m. (PST).  Winner will be chosen randomly and announced at noon (PST), Saturday, December 1, 2012. Giveaway over 12/1/12
And remember: you can visit the Audrey Eclectic Etsy Shop to see more of Heather's art - including her unique prints, calendars, and dolls.  Isn't her artwork stunning??  What's your favorite?

ADVENT & CHRISTMAS RESOURCE PAGE

Norman Rockwell, 1951

This page is a gathering of my Advent and Christmas posts.  Just right-click on the links to open...

Advent Calendar of Christmas Books Posts:
Christmas Book Resource Page (all my reviews & recommendations)
How to make an Advent Calendar of Christmas Books (2012)
40 Books for 40 Days of Advent Book List (2010)

Posts about St. Nicholas:

Will the Real Santa Claus Please Stand Up?

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Who is the Man in the Red Suit?

Why Belgian Cookies for St. Nicholas Day (December 6)?

Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

Posts for Saint Lucia Day (December 13):
Books about St. Lucia
Scandinavian Christmas Books & recipe for Lucia buns

2011 "Christmas Around the World" posts:

• Greece
• Germany
• Mexico
• Russia
• Sweden
• Great Britain
• France
• Italy

Twelve Days of Christmas Posts:
Gifts from the Magi
Books About the Twelve Days of Christmas
December 26/27: King Wenceslas and the Feast of Saint Stephen

Tricia Romance, from A Star for Christmas

CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD: SWEDEN

Greeting:  "God Jul" (Good Yule)
St. Nicholas Tradition:  The Swedish gift-giver is a Jultomten. The Jultomten, unlike Santa Claus, is believed to be a little dwarf or gnome who lives under the floorboards of the house. He might also live in the barn and guard their farm. He rides a goat, called Julbocker. The goat is a reference to the Scandinavian god, Thor, whose chariot was pulled by two goats. The Jultomten will hand out gifts from a sack to the children on Christmas Eve. Even though this pagan tradition was outlawed by both church and state in the middle ages, it persisted in private.
Highlighted Tradition: St. Lucia Procession

Four Sundays before Christmas marks the beginning of Advent, and of the Christmas celebration in Sweden. Church services are well attended, and communities start to decorate with greenery and white lights.  Most homes display a four-candle Advent candelabra, one for each Sunday of Advent.  Children enjoy counting down the days with an Advent calendar, which shows a Christmas scene in twenty-five numbered "windows" that are opened each day of December, until Christmas Day.

St. Lucia Day is celebrated on December 13, which also - according to folk tradition - follows the longest night of the year. Lucia means "light" and after long winter months with few hours of sunlight, there is certainly good reason to honor her. To read more about this 4th-century girl from Italy who died for her faith, click here. Swedish families, offices, schools, and churches choose one girl to wear a crown of candles as she represents St. Lucia in processions throughout Sweden.

Being of Swedish (and Norwegian) descent myself, I've already written several posts about Scandinavian Christmas traditions.  You can click on the highlighted titles below to read those posts:
Scandinavian Tomte (this post has a review of the book The Tomten)
Christmas in Scandinavia (this post has a link to a recipe for St. Lucia Buns)
Happy St. Lucia Day! (this post includes my reviews of books about St. Lucia)

Swedish families enjoy Christmas trees, which they decorate with candles, apples, Swedish flags, small gnomes in red hats, and ornaments made of straw.  They bake pepparkakor, or ginger cookies, and serve a smorgasbord, or buffet, for their dinner on Julafton (Christmas Eve). It might include ham, pickled pigs' feet, and lutfisk (dried codfish).  Risgrynsgrot, a special rice porridge, is served with cinnamon and sugar and a single, hidden almond.  Custom has it that whoever finds the almond in their bowl will marry in the coming year.

Early one Christmas morning in Sweden, Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka open their eyes. Soon they will have their Christmas gifts! Maj Lindman's books were originally published in the ’40s and ’50s. They were the wholesome adventures of three little Swedish girls, Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka, and three little boys, Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr. Longtime fans of the series will delight in revisiting the story, and new readers will find fun and excitement as the girls must save their friend Bertie after an ice-skating disaster. This updated hardcover edition comes with paper dolls!

A Star For Christmas, by Trisha Romance, is full of colorful Scandinavian style artwork, reminiscent of Trina Schart Hyman or Carl Larsson. A gentle old carpenter who has spent his whole life in the service of others has finally begun to build his own home in a quiet meadow, with nothing but a small reindeer to keep him company. Finishing by winter seems like an impossible task, but the carpenter reaps the years of kindness he has sown, and his neighbors return his love by helping complete his new home in time for Christmas. He has a wonderful Nativity surprise in store for them, making this Christmas one that everyone will cherish forever.

In Sweden and Finland, the Christmas season ends a week after Epiphany, on St. Knut's Day, January 13.  This is the day the tree is taken down and the ornaments are stored for the next year. St. Knut was King Knut IV, and ruled from 1080-1086.  He was know for his generosity to the poor.  This song is sung when the tree is finally taken out of the house:

Christmas has come to an end,

And the tree must go.

But the next year once again

We shall see our dear old friend,

For he has promised us so.

Source for my Christmas Around the World posts:

Mary D. Lankford's Christmas Around the World