Bringing Light to December: A Special Saint Lucia Day Celebration at Katedralskolan

With Lucia celebrations just around the corner, the dark, gloomy days of Swedish winter are beginning to feel much brighter. Even the campus of Katedralskolan has embraced the festive spirit, with Christmas lights strung around the building, a creative holiday-themed “book tree” in the library, a traditional Christmas tree by the main entrance, and glowing snowflake lights decorating the café windows.

This Friday, the festive cheer will reach its peak with a special Saint Lucia Day celebration taking place at 08:15 in the aula on the second floor. Lessons will resume, according to schedule, at 08:50, meaning that lessons before then will either be delayed or cancelled. For more information, it is best to refer to your subject teacher regarding this matter! 

Now, you may be wondering what the fuss is all about. What is Saint Lucia Day? Why do we celebrate it? And what exactly can we expect from this long-awaited Lucia celebration at school?

Well, the origins of Saint Lucia Day can be traced back to the 4th century. It commemorates the martyr Lucia of Syracuse, who, as the story goes, brought food to Christians hiding in Roman catacombs, illuminating her way with a candle lit wreath on her head. An alternative origin is one found in Swedish folklore. According to the historic Julian calendar, the shortest day was on the 13th of December, the long night was dangerous and streets were haunted by dark spirits. Staying awake and eating was essential on this night, to keep the spirits at bay. Lucia was an ancient mythical figure playing the role as a bearer of light on this dark and dangerous night.  

Nowadays, the annual celebration of Lucia has become a central part of Swedish culture. On the 13th of December, it is not uncommon to see girls and boys clad in white full-length gowns, bearing candles and singing songs together. This special choir, also known as a “Luciatåg”, is led by a Lucia herself with a trail of handmaidens (‘tjärnor’), star boys (‘stjärngossar’) and gingerbread men (‘pepparkaksgubbar’) along with Christmas elves (‘tomtenissar’), although not always. 

Lucia, of course, stands out amongst the rest of the procession, with a lit-up wreath on the top of her head. Traditionally, real candles are used, but for safety reasons they are sometimes replaced by battery-powered ones. If real candles are used, buckets of water are usually placed around the venue in case of emergency.

The handmaidens typically wear glitter or a wreath (without candles) in their hair along with a glitter or decorative ribbon around the waist. The star boys wear all white, like the Lucia and handmaidens, with cone-like hats on their heads and usually hold star-adorned sticks. 

For our celebration at Katedralskolan, our choir will be dressed in slightly different attire.The girls will be dressed as traditional handmaidens while the boys will have white long-sleeved shirts, dark trousers, red bowties and Santa Claus hats. Real candles will also be used. 

The luciatåg will be performing the following songs:

Sankta Lucia

Lucianatt 

Så mörk är natten

Advent kanon

Hej mitt vinterland

När det lider mot jul

Vikinga - Staffan

Of course, Lucia celebrations are not complete without traditional Swedish fika. Usually, people celebrate by eating gingerbread biscuits and sweet saffron buns (lussekatter in Swedish) accompanied by a cup of glögg (a type of mulled wine flavoured with Christmas spices). I am not sure if the school cafeteria will be serving anything special for the occasion, but if you are looking for an affordable fika to eat after school,  the local Coop and ICA are selling saffron buns for 5 crowns each. But, perhaps, the school café may be planning a special offer like they did on kanelbullens dag.

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With that being said, I am sure we are all excited to take part in this celebration on Friday. But how do the choir members feel about it? Are they excited? Nervous? What are they doing to prepare for this annual performance?

Well, upon interviewing two of them, I managed to get their perspective on what it means for them to take part in the Luciatåg:

 Feeling excited for the performance?

“Yes, I feel very excited for the performance.” - Nisal Karunaratne DP23 (N.K.)

“Moderately, but for the most part I am excited. A lot of work goes into preparing for this performance and it can feel overwhelming at times, however, the nice atmosphere in the aula makes it all worth it in the end.” - Olivia Mattson Clarke DP23 (O.M.C)

What is the practice schedule like?

“To prepare for the Lucia performance we practice in the evening, after school, for about 2 hours. Normally, in weeks where we don’t have a performance, we have practice every Monday 15.00-16.30. Overall, I think the practice schedule is fine!” - N.K.

“The practice schedule is quite stressful. In preparing for this event, we have rehearsal on many days of the week so it can be hard to balance schoolwork on top of the performance preparations. Other than that it is manageable and I enjoy rehearsals quite a lot. It is really cool to see how all our individual parts come together to make a whole.” - O.M.C.

In case you were not aware, the choir is also going to a Children’s hospital to spread the holiday cheer, so I thought it would be worth asking them about it.

Are you looking forward to the Children’s hospital visit?

“Yes I am. This is a huge opportunity to make the children happy!” - N.K.

“Yes I am very much looking forward to this visit. I think it is a perfect way to spread the festive spirit and put a smile on the kids’ faces. We have even adjusted some parts of the songs to make it more enjoyable for the kids to listen to. For example, in one part of the song, we sing about hooves stomping against the ground, so as we sing the line, we will imitate the sound of the hooves with our hands. It adds a bit of comical entertainment that I am sure the children will appreciate” - O.M.C. 

What is your favourite part about being in the choir?

“I enjoy being one of only two boys singing in the choir. It makes it feel like I have a special role and an important role.” - N.K. 

“I love how nice it can sound when all the different parts of the choir come together. Everyone plays different tones (there is soprano, tenor, bass, etc.) that may sound strange on their own, however, when combined, they harmonise beautifully together. I also enjoy receiving positive feedback from those who attend the performances, it makes it feel like all my hard work has been appreciated, and it really encourages me to continue performing.” - O.C.M.

And last but not least, why should people come to watch the performance?

“To take part in a holiday tradition, spread happiness and let us perform what we have practiced for months and to see our hard work.” - N.K.

“It builds the culture of doing things together as well as the fact that Saint Lucia is a common Swedish tradition, so it is nice to take part in something that we can all enjoy together. To add on, the ambience in the aula is really nice when we perform the Lucia songs. The room is dimly lit by candles which creates a cozy atmosphere!” - O.M.C.

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A special thanks to Nisal and Olivia for taking part in this interview!

I hope that you found this article informative and that you are looking forward to the special Lucia performance, again, taking place on Friday at 08:15!