Happy Winter Holiday!

[sailorkitty]

Happy vacation if you don't celebrate any winter festivities. 

Since I haven't written much lately, here's some information on Lucia Day.

One of Swedens 'religious' traditions is Saint Lucia's day. Saint Lucia shouldn't technically still be celebrated, because Sweden is Lutheran (Protestant), and has been since the 1500's thanks to Gustav Vasa*. However, Sweden has always been a large country, with few cities and many open spaces. The peasants can often do whatever they damn well like, with only the law of Jante to keep them in line. The longest night of the year, according to the Julian Kalender, was the 13th of December, Saint Lucia's day. It was known as 'Little Christmas Eve' and reason to feast (Some reports tell of three breakfasts, which sounds like Hobbit-Style-Overkill), but also a night when supernatural forces were at work. The 'Lucia Bride' was originally a festive joke, either a person dressed in straw or a doll made of straw.

During the latter part of the 19th century, it turned into today's tradition: One young woman with long fair hair (Or a man if no women were present) wearing a crown of lingonberries and lit candles carries a tray of Saffron buns and coffee, to hand out to the audience. She is followed by a train of maids, starboys, and in the 21st century, gingerbread people and gnomes in santa costumes('Gnome' and 'Santa' are both referred to as 'Tomte' in Swedish, causing overlap). Everyone, save the 21st century inventions, wear long, white, flowing nightgowns. They sing Christmas songs, which range from religious (Silent Night, Nu Tändas Tusen Juleljus) to not at all (Tänd Ett Hus, Jag Såg Mamma Kyssa Tomten). The Starboys have their own song, 'Staffan Var En Stalledräng'.

Traditionally, Lucia was supposed to have long, fair hair, and tended to be voted from a group of young women. This changed over the course of the late 20th century, and a dark-haired Lucia is now acceptable.

Source: https://www.nordiskamuseet.se/aretsdagar/lucia

Comments

[sonofgodzilla]

I love Saint Lucia. We have some overlap with the Wassail Queene here, but that's all but forgotten. I feel as if there's also a correlation with the characters of the Feast of Fools too (the Boy Bishop, the Lord of Misrule, the Abbot of Unreason et al.) but I would love to see Saint Lucia 'in person.'

The Starboys I didn't know about though! I'm secretly imagining them all as Ziggy Stardust era Bowie cosplayers. Please don't disavow me of this misconception.

[greghousesgf]

I've always found holiday traditions from different countries interesting, thank you for posting this!

[sailorkitty]

Oh, I looked it up! The Wassail bowl sounds delicious. I was always kind of sad over not having Christmas carolers around, but I guess Lucia is 'our' version. It's interesting that you bring up the Feast of Fools, since the (Swedish) article I sourced this from likens it to the 'Carnivale' tradition of norms being turned on their heads.

They.. They kind of are? They are sparkly and wear stars, at least! And star wands. Used to be one myself, back in Scouts. (School demanded I castrate myself and be a maid. After bombarding us with talk about men and women being able to do the same things.)

[sailorkitty]

No problem! :) Holidays can vary so much. Like the German Krampus, and Lutheran Easter having children dress up as little witches (no matter their gender) and beg for candy.

[sonofgodzilla]

ahahah, I'm sure you made an adorable maid! But yeah, got to love that traditional hypocrisy. I'm so happy the starboys are so sparkly. I kind of feel I need to write about this!! The Wassail tradition is lovely, and you can really see the roots of things that carried over to Hallowe'en traditions in it too, which, again, like anything carnivale is about the inversion of social norms. I love all of this stuff so much, you know. I feel that because I'm marginally an outsider when it comes to these things, I'm kind of all the more dedicated to them because of this.

[sonofgodzilla]

I'm also gatecrashing this thread to remind everyone of the Spanish Caganer tradition. :p

[sailorkitty]

...This is not helping the running gag that is Southern European cultural artefacts in our house. (Their white Christmas nougat is delicious, though, far more enjoyable than our Klenäter).

(And seeing as Sweden does the froggy dance around a giant penis for midsummer, it's not like we can claim superiority in any way, sense, or fashion).

[sonofgodzilla]

Sweden and Japan should maybe just get a room? :p

But bless the Caganer. My fave are the celebrity Caganers. Like I don't understand how anyone could object to a novelty statue of the Pope/Putin/Trump/delete as applicable doing a shit in the corner as Jesus is born?

[sailorkitty]

Holy shit, I love the fact that they went for equality and made vagina-pops :'D

Now I desperately need one of Stephen Lövén. (Our current state minister) (...I really shouldn't be surprised that they originated in the 18th century. Fratboy years.)

[sonofgodzilla]

If you ever feel the need to found a Caganer Museum and start collecting these things, I will apply for a visa in the hopes you will employ me. :P

[mithun]

the Julian Kalender

Oh, that's why the 13th became the feast of light! That makes so much sense.

[sailorkitty]

Yeah! Sweden was surprisingly not that late about dropping it in 1753(Forcing Finland to follow). Probably because the UK & Colonies had -just- adopted the Gregorian, and Sweden started to realise that maybe this was going to be a thing by that point.