According to the Julian calendar,
December 13th was the shortest day of the year. The change to the Gregorian
calendar altered the date to December 21st, but did not change Lucy's
feast day celebration, and she is forever associated with lengthening
days and more sunlight.
In Sweden, December 13th opens the
Christmas celebration. In ancient Sweden, the word "Lussi" was
written on fences, doors, walls. This graffiti was used to tell the demons
of winter that their reign was over and longer days were returning. Traditionally,
a daughter in each Swedish family dresses in a white dress with red sash,
and wears on her head an evergreen wreath with lighted candles. She would
bring hot coffee and saffron buns called
lussekatter (Lucia buns) to wake her family. The tradition continues,
though with electric candles, not flame.
Sicilians celebrate Saint Lucy with
cuccia, a
special dish made of wheat berries, chocolate, sugar and milk. Though
she is the patron saint of vision, she is equally revered for ending a
famine. Each family makes their own version of cuccia and the children
bring bowls of it to their neighbors as gifts. This tradition came with
the Sicilian immigrants who populated America. You can read a contemporary
account of this: helen
viola
Poem: "A Nocturnal upon Saint
Lucy' Day" by John Donne
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