Saint Lucy

[dragonyphoenix]

Teresa at Making Light has post on the Feast of St. Lucia, but a good number of the links, which she got from another site and which she freely admits in the post, don't work so I've looked them up.

SANKTA LUCIA SONG A Swedish folksong to St. Lucia along with it's English translation, as well as an Italian song, also translated, associated with the place Santa Lucia.  Both songs have the same tune although the lyrical content is different.  I'm thinking of a St. Lucia ritual including lighting a candle and reciting the Swedish lyrics.
The Christ Child as Saint by Jan-Öjvind Swahn is a very Christian look at the evolution of the festival.

Lucy Fest by Susan Granquist is a heathen (Norse pagan) look at the origins of the festival 
Clement A. Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan. I haven't read it yet, but it seems to be a whole book about Pagan origins of Christmas traditions

Comments

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

I wonder if any girls have had their hair catch fire with that crown with candles.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

My friend Doreen used to tell it that the youngest daughter of the house made breakfast for the whole family, and then woke them while wearing the crown of candles. I can remember her saying "What a recipe for disaster." But, for the breakfast at least, most of the family is up and they wake the father.

I'm guessing they have safeguards. One indicent like that would pretty much kill the tradition.

[tnh.livejournal.com]

My guess is that the heat from candles all goes up, not down, and that using new candles in the crown each year guarantees the heat source is some inches away from your head.

DP, mighty is your Google-fu. Do you mind if I incorporate your found links -- with due credit, of course?

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Sure. I have no problem with you using the links. They were pretty easy to find. Really. I had actually planned to post them with the original post, but I figured someone else had beaten me to looking them up. (Didn't actually check that though.)

The new candles each year idea makes a lot of sense. You certainly would want to keep flame away from hair.

[devo79.livejournal.com]

In Denmark Sankta Lucia is done at schools where a class (usually the smaller kids) walks through the school on the 13th of December or as close to that date as possible. They sing the song Sankta Lucia and then that's it.

Here's the Danish version of the "ritual".



As most Danish rituals it's very low key and just a little boring. Someone once said, that the reason Denmark never had a real revolution was because it rained the day it was suppose to happen. And people just couldn't be bothered :)

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is totally sweet! Thanks for sharing it.