St Lucia Day Dec. 13th

We've started a new tradition celebrating St. Lucia Day each year as a family. We first celebrated it on our trip to Gothenburg, Sweden when we picked up our new Volvo a few years ago. I have Swedish ancestry, and what better way to teach the kids about their heritage than with their Christmas celebration? Ava had a wonderful time dressing up as St. Lucia and serving up saffron buns. Traditionally the oldest girl in the family dresses as St. Lucia, wearing a crown of candles on her head, a white dress with a red sash, and while singing traditional songs she serves the family saffron buns and coffee (hot chocolate for us). In Sweden, a girl from the town is chosen to be St. Lucia, similar to a beauty pageant.

There are many legends as to who St Lucia was, but basically she was a good Christian from Italy that devoted her life to God and saved many people from hunger. It is believed that she fed the hungry, persecuted Christians in hiding, the candles on her crown lighting the darkness. The Scandinavians may have heard about St. Lucia from Catholic missionaries, but the legend there says during a famine a woman with candles on her head, dressed in white, brought food to the starving. St. Lucia is a symbol of hope and light during the darkest day of the year in Sweden. St. Lucia starts out the Christmas festivities in Sweden in preparation for Dec 25th.

The kids colored pages of St. Lucia, and we read a book about St. Lucia Day in Sweden. The kids helped me make saffron buns (wow- the spice costs $10 a bottle!) and we made chocolate chunk cookies too. I sewed Ava's St. Lucia dress quickly the day before. She was so cute, walking into the room surprising Jason, Ethan, and Billy. We had the St. Lucia song playing, we're still learning the songs. She didn't want to take off her crown the rest of the night.