Today is St. Lucia Day, a
feast day celebrated primarily in Sweden. A
page maintained by the
University of Missouri Kansas City has a good overview of the history
of this fourth century Italian saint and how her name came to be
associated with the observance of the start of winter. In one version
of the saint's life, Lucy is portrayed a young
woman from a prosperous family who converted to Christianity and then
refused marriage to a pagan suitor. Because she refused to give up "the
incooruptible treasure of her virginity" (a phrase known to Catholic
schoolgirls thoughout the twentieth century), she was martyred by
having her eyes plucked out and then her neck pierced by a sword. She
is often depicted holding a plate with her eyes on it. More delicate
renditions show her holding something like a small jewelry box. (I once
thought that's where she kept the incorruptible treasure.)
I came to know about Lucia Day at about the age of ten. A family friend
had given me a book put out by UNICEF which showed children from member
countries in some native garb and a short essay about their culture.
The page about Sweden explained the custom of the oldest girl in a
family dressed as the
Lussibruden
(the Lucy bride) in a white gown and red sash and wearing a crown of
lighted candles on her head. She serves her parents a breakfast of
cardamom rolls and coffee, and everyone celebrates that the darkness of
winter is at its depth and the sun will now begin its journey back to
summer. (In the old Julian calendar the solstice occurred on December
13.)
This spectacle captured my imagination and it gradually became part of
my Christmas mythology. The year that Lynn was born, a woman named
Pleasant Rowland founded a company that produced dolls featuring
American girls from a number of immigrant cultures. One of them was
Kirsten, a 19th-century Swedish girl. When Lynn was about four I bought
the Kirsten doll and her
St.
Lucia Day paraphernalia. I also bought the girl-sized crown and
made a white dress and sash for Lynn.
At
left you see a picture of Lynn at 5 (1990) serving the cardamom rolls
at my first holiday open house. (The shoes had been used a year earlier
as part of her Dorothy of Oz costume.) I got her decked out like this
for another few years, until she learned that a particular classmate
would be accompanying his parents to the party and she said, "I'm not
wearing that crown any more." Now I place it on the table along with
the Lucia-outfitted Kirsten doll and a heaping tray of the S-shaped
cardamom rolls. That table also features the Three Favorite Cookies of
my childhood, corn-flake cherry drops, Toll House cookies the way my
mother made them (with all ingredients doubled except the chocolate, to
save money), and sand tarts.
There have been times in my life when December was filled with
darkness. Not only have I from time to time had personal sorrows at
this season, I also am subject to Seasonal Affective Disorder, a form
of depression that occurs at the onset of the dark days and can persist
until spring. Some years the effects have been pronounced, even when
conditions in my life were not complicating things. This is not one of
them.
And so I take this Saint Lucia day to celebrate all the light that is
in my life, and I leave my readers with words from one of my favorite
modern Advent songs:
Rejoice, rejoice, take heart in the night,
though dark the winter and cheerless.
The rising sun shall
crown you with light, be strong and loving and fearless.
Love be our song and love
our prayer and love be our endless story.
May God fill every day we
share and bring us at last into glory.
Happy St. Lucia Day.
