Every December 13th all the Scandinavian countries and many other European countries celebrate the St. Lucy's Day or St. Lucia's Day as we like to call it in Finland. It is believed that Lucia was a Sicilian saint who suffered a martyr's death in Syracuse, Sicily around AD 310. St. Lucia brings bright light and hope to the dark days of winter solstice.
For the St. Lucia's Day a girl is elected to portray Lucia. Usually it is a girl from a local high school. I never had a chance to be Lucia because first of all I can't sing much and second, I'm not blond. Most of the time Lucia has blond hair because that looks more angelic and bright.
Lucia will wear a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head. Then she will walk at the head of a procession of girls, each holding a candle. The candles symbolize the fire that refused to kill St. Lucia when she was sentenced to be burned.
The girls sing a Lucia song while they enter the room, to the melody of the traditional Neapolitan song Santa Lucia; the Italian lyrics describe the view from Santa Lucia in Naples, the various Scandinavian lyrics are fashioned for the occasion, describing the light with which Lucia overcomes the darkness. Each Scandinavian country has lyrics in their native language. I tried to look for a video clip about St Lucia and her song in Finnish but I wasn't able to find one. Here is video of St. Lucia's day celebration in Swedish. If you didn't know, Swedish is the second national language in Finland.
St. Lucia and her procession visit schools, retirement homes and churches. This year a 19-year old Nora Peltola was chosen to be the St. Lucia in the whole Finland according to the news paper SavonSanomat, Nora is an experienced singer and she has been performing in churches. Here's a picture of her from the SavonSanomat webpage. She looks as angelic and sweet as St. Lucia can be.
Good luck to Nora on her special day. I hope she makes lots of people happy with her singing! Besides singing and bringing the light, the St Lucia's Day organization collects money that goes to charities that support the care of elderly people who live alone. If you are not able to see the St. Lucia, you can always celebrate St. Lucia's Day by lighting a candle at home or donating money.
I'm already feeling the dark days of winter time affecting me. I feel like I need to eat and sleep more. The darkest day of the year will be on the 22nd of December. We will only see the daylight for 4 hours and 45 minutes in Kuopio on that day (*sad face*). I definitely need St. Lucia to bring me more light. I'm counting days and months to next summer... Plus I'm counting days to Christmas and there are only 10 more days till Christmas Eve (*smile*).
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