Saint Lucia

 

My little tomte!

 

All decked out for Christmas

 

Playing Chimes

 

And again…

 

                           And again!

 

                Doesn’t she look thrilled?

 

Today was our annual Saint Lucia day at Church. For those of you who aren’t Swedish or just don’t know what it is, on the darkest day in Sweden which usually falls on the 13th of December, the oldest daughter in the family will put on a crown of candles and get up very early (glad we don’t do this in my family) and serves coffee and Lucia buns to the rest of her family. In Sweden because of the earth’s tilt, only has about 5 hours of daylight on December 13th.

However there is much more to the story of Lucia. She actually did not originate in Sweden but in Italy. I guess her mother was very sick and she prayed that if God healed her, she would spend the rest of her days serving the poor. Well, He did and so she used all her dowry and gave to the poor. Well when her husband (or to be husband) found out about this, he was not pleased and had her arrested. She eventually was burned at the stake because of her belief in God.

Today was I think our 4th annual Lucia Festival. Kiah and I were both involved (I played bells and she played chimes and was also part of the Lucia court as one of the Christmas elves). Hard to believe Christmas is only 2 weeks away! May we continue to remember the reason for the season as we come closer to Christmas day.

Anneli