Lucia in Sweden

[Ann]

On Tuesday we will celebrate one of the most peculiarly Swedish traditions, Saint Lucia's Day. It's not a "day-off-work" or "no-school-today" holiday, but it affects most people in Sweden anyway.

It all starts on the night leading up to Lucia. High school kids stay out very late, many of them all night, partying and drinking.

Then, early in the morning, Lucia herself will make her appearance. Lucia is always a girl who has had her "Lucia honour" bestowed on her, usually by people voting for her. Lucia is by far the most widely observed beauty and popularity contest for girls in Sweden. Every school must have its own Lucia, chosen among the female students of that school. Every town and city must have its own Lucia. Newspapers crown their own Lucia, having their readers elect her by voting. More than one TV channel crown their own Lucia, too. Even some workplaces have their own Lucia.

Even per-schoolers have their own Lucia procession, although here all the girls are usually allowed to be Lucia. Typically, proud parents will take a few hour off from work to watch their children being Lucia.

Lucia must always have a crown of candles on her head. She must wear a long white dress and wear a red sash tied around her waist.

Lucia always enters a darkened room, walking at the head of a procession which also consists of other girls and sometimes boys. In the picture at right, Lucia's attendants - "tärnor", as they are called in Swedish - also wear long white gowns, like Lucia herself. Here the attendants appear to be children. Often Lucia and her attendants are the same age, and the attendants often don't wear red sashes. The attendants also don't wear any sort of headpieces with candles, although they always carry candles in their hands.

This is a typical Lucia celebration in a Swedish school. Many of the girls here will have been out partying all night, and they have arrived directly for their Lucia performance at eight o'clock in the morning at school. It will get very hot when the girls stand close together, holding their candles, and it happens that girls faint. That's why the school nurse is always in the front row, ready to help out if a girl is getting sick.



Lucia and her attendants have to sing a number of popular Lucia songs. This one is the most popular.

When I was a kid, very many boys would dress up as "stjärngossar" (literally "star-boys") and join the Lucia procession. Today, most boys shun the star-boy outfit, which is considered unbelievably geeky. This picture is from 1957.

Speaking of star boys, please click on this link and scroll down until you can see a cat in a star boy hat. Isn't he adorable???

Another thing that is typically 1957 is that the little Lucia is carrying a tray with coffee, gingerbread and saffron buns. When I was a teenager - which was not in 1957, I hasten to add - we always went home to one of our teachers, all dressed up as Lucia and attendants and star boys, very early in the morning, about six o'clock. We would ring the doorbell, and when the drowsy teacher or his or her spouse opened for us, we would come in, sing our Lucia songs, and bring out coffee, gingerbread and saffron buns. Then we would sing a few more Lucia song, watching our teacher and his or her spouse eat the Lucia breakfast that we brought them.



As I said, few boys take part in the Lucia celebrations nowadays, and those who do usually don't dress up as star boys. But when boys are present, they almost always sing their special "Staffan" song. The most popular version of the lyrics goes like this, in English:

Staffan (Saint Stephen?) was a stable boy,
we all gladly give thanks.
He watered his five horses
Because of the bright star.
No break of dawn can yet be seen
The stars of the heaven they twinkle.

And then the Lucia celebration is over, and many students fall asleep at school later that day. But many "Lucior" - which is the correct plural form in Swedish - have a hard day of work ahead of them, as they will have to visit hospitals, homes for old people and various other institutions to sing to the people there to cheer them up. And in the evening, many people go to churches and to various clubs or even shopping malls to see more Lucia processions.

Ann

[orin stepanek]

An interesting tradition Ann. I wonder how many fires get started when some of the girls faint?

[Chris Peterson]

An interesting tradition Ann. 8-) I wonder how many fires get started when some of the girls faint?

Yes, St Lucy's Day is one of Sweden's great tragedies, but also plays a key role in managing the country's population.

It is also celebrated in other Scandinavian and northern European countries, and in American states with high Swedish populations- but generally without the candles.

[Ann]

Chris, I was rolling at the floor laughing out loud at that post of yours!

There haven't been any serious incidents during Lucia processions and Lucia performances, as far as I know. Swedes would be unwilling to tolerate such things, so a bad accident may deal a deadly blow to the Lucia traditions in Sweden. I agree that it could happen. Little kids always use perfectly safe electric candles and electric Lucia crowns, but the drowsy and overhung Lucia teens use live candles.

A small Lucia adjusts her electric crown. The little boys behind her are all dressed up as "tomtar", Santa's little helpers. Nowadays boys want to be "tomtar" during Lucia instead of star boys.

At the school were I work, there will be Lucia processions between eight and ten in the morning.


Afterwards, all the students at school will be treated to yellow "lussekatter", saffron buns, and brown "pepparkakor", a sort of gingerbread.





I hope I can see a Lucia procession on early morning TV before I go to work, because the TV Lucia will sing better than the one at school!

Ann

[Beyond]

What is "lussekatter"

[Chris Peterson]

What is "lussekatter"?

The plural of lussekatt.

[owlice]

beyond, Google is your friend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron_bun

[Beyond]

Oh, ok. I thought Ann had listed 3-things. She only listed 2, but i didn't see that until i typed it out horizontally.
Owlice, anytime i type in something that i know there's only one answer for, and Google gives me a 1/4 million answers, Google is NOT my friend. Any friend that i have is not that STUPID!!

[Ann]

A "lussekatt" is a saffron bun, but the word actually means "Lucia cat". Here is one.



Ann

[orin stepanek]

An interesting tradition Ann. I wonder how many fires get started when some of the girls faint?

Yes, St Lucy's Day is one of Sweden's great tragedies, but also plays a key role in managing the country's population.

It is also celebrated in other Scandinavian and northern European countries, and in American states with high Swedish populations- but generally without the candles.

Ann I don't know where Chris got the photo; but if it's real and not made up than I'll bet that girl wouldn't think it was very funny! Of course digital tom foolery can make anything look real! Like in that commercial where the two insurance dudes are doing the liar, liar, pants on fire; thing,

[Ann]

Orin, I took it for granted that the picture of the poor girl was photoshopped. In any case, I wasn't laughing at her.

No, I was laughing at Chris' implication that thousands of Swedish girls die each year during Lucia because they are set on fire by Lucia candles. Chris suggested that there are so many annual Lucia casualties that they really affect the growth of our population. Of course Chris was joking. What I found so funny was the sheer absurdity of his joke, coupled with my own realization of how his joke took the absurdity of the Swedish Lucia tradition to an whole new level.

But I still like Lucia.

Ann

[Chris Peterson]

Ann I don't know where Chris got the photo...

Just a clip from an old horror movie. I really don't think they lit their star on fire!

[orin stepanek]

It looks like an old movie clip! It's amazing what special effects were able to do it those days gone by. I was going to show the insurance clip with the pants on fire; but thought that might count as spam!

[bystander]

Just a clip from an old horror movie. I really don't think they lit their star on fire!

IMDb: The Hypnotic Eye (1960)

[geckzilla]

Haha, she waits soooo long after apparently catching fire before reacting.

[owlice]

The one time I caught myself on fire, it took me a while to react, too.

[geckzilla]

So everyone knows to stop drop and roll, but when it actually happens does it just get forgotten?

[Chris Peterson]

So everyone knows to stop drop and roll, but when it actually happens does it just get forgotten?

Well... first you have to know you are actually on fire. And of course, if you're under the spell of an evil hypnotist, you're more likely to run around flapping your arms like a chicken, aren't you?

[geckzilla]

Well, I mean, Owlice seemed to know she was on fire but decided to get help from someone else instead. I've never been on fire myself so I thought maybe just the terror of the moment might make one forget. I guess it was a dumb question, though.

[owlice]

No, not a dumb question. I didn't walk into the other room to seek help; I was amused (!) that a little spot on the bathrobe I was wearing had a couple of sparks on it. The reality of the situation hadn't registered; I couldn't see and didn't know (consciously) that my entire back was in flames. I said, "I'm on fire" to my roommate, but I really thought that it was just a small spot. I didn't feel I was in danger until my roommate started screaming at me, and then my first impulse upon hearing the screaming was to run, which, I'm glad to say, I didn't do. (The screaming sent a rush of adrenaline through me; it really scared me.) I threw myself against the wall (back to the wall) and then lay down on the carpet (hence the need to repaint the wall and shampoo the carpet later...). That -- lying down (stop/drop/roll) -- put the fire out.

Even though the hair on one side of my head was noticeably shorter after this -- and burning hair smells just awful! The apartment had to be aired out despite it being the dead of winter -- it wasn't until the next day that it really dawned on me how I must have looked walking into the living room. I was in class that next day and had a sensation that made me rub the back of my left ear... which burst the burn blister all along the edge of it. That's when I realized what had happened, why the screaming started, that I'd been on fire from my rear end all the way up to my left ear. (Geez, how slow of me! )

Fortunately, I had put the bathrobe on over jeans and a tee-shirt because I was chilly; the only places I was burned was on the inside of my left arm below the tee-shirt sleeve (in stripes, like the chenille of the robe) and my left ear. Had I not been wearing the jeans and tee-shirt under the bathrobe, I think I would have felt a bit more anxiety or fear when I walked from the kitchen into the other room because I'd have felt the flames; this tale likely would have had a somewhat different outcome had I not had the tee-shirt and jeans on. That flaming evening, my roommate was a mess and needed to be calmed down; I, on the other hand, just wanted to take a shower (to get the smell of burning hair -- ick! -- off me) and was annoyed that my roommate was just short of hysterical and that by the time I got out of the shower, my bathrobe was in the trash (I liked that bathrobe!) and my roommate was still going on about what had happened. (I apologized for my annoyance the next day once I got home from my classes.)

I kept the tee-shirt for years after that, though I no longer wore it; it probably literally saved my skin.

[geckzilla]

Damn, that's a lot crazier than you made it sound in the first post. I have this really baggy XL hoodie that I wear in winter since it's so big and I can basically fit my whole body in it. I have noticed the tendency for the sleeves to fall down a lot and try to catch themselves on fire at the stove. I think I'll stop being lazy from now on and take it off when cooking.

[Beyond]

Gee, this is great Real home-cooked stories, straight from the chef. My condolences to the chef. Burnt feathers smell bad also.

[owlice]

An excellent idea, geckzilla! From initial ignition to full-back-on-fire was the time it took me to stand up (I'd bent over to put something away); the stove was right at the entrance to the kitchen, and it took only two or three steps for me to walk into the foyer where my roommate could see me. It was as if the bathrobe had been doused in lighter fluid or some such -- it was that fast. From hitting the stove to getting the fire out, the bathrobe off, and standing up was probably under 30 seconds, and some of that time was calmly letting my roommate know (as I lay there on the floor) that a little help untying the belt on the bathrobe would be appreciated.

So yes, please take the really baggy XL hoodie off when you cook! Or even when you just put the kettle on for tea.

beyond, yeah, I was almost home-cooked! Had a very strange hairstyle for a few days, too; quite lopsided!

[Beyond]

When i get new flannel shirts, the first thing i do is wash them to get rid of the fuzzies. A new flannel shirt will go up in flames about as fast as you did. But even if your batrobe was flannel, and it was your favorite, you must have washed it already, so i don't know why it flamed up so fast.

[Ann]

Glad you are alive, owlice! But to me it seems as if the gas stove was the culprit. When I was buying my first apartment back in 1983, my top requirement was that it mustn't have a gas stove. In Sweden you don't just buy an apartment, you also buy the kitchen equipment that comes with it, such as a stove and a fridge. If there is a gas stove in an apartment, it usually means that the whole apartment building supplies its kitchens with gas, and it will take a lot of hassle to install an electric stove in such a kitchen. I saw several apartments that were nice, but they had gas stoves, so they were out.

My aunt had a gas stove when I was a child, and it terrified me. You had to hold the burning match right next to those little "holes" where the gas was streaming out, and the gas would "catch fire" and "throw out" a ring of admittedly beautiful and blue but very scary flames. And if you just "turned down" the gas, you might actually make the flames disappear without fully quenching the gas. Then you might forget that your stove was slowly leaking gas, and you might go to bed and fall asleep as your apartment was slowly filling up with deadly gas, and your sleep may turn into first unconsciousness and then death.

So use an electric stove if you want to avoid being set on fire or suffocating from gas poisoning when you are asleep!

Ann