Santa Lucia is celebrated all over Sweden on December 13th. The custom with the girl dressed in white and with candles on her head has a complicated background. Its origin is from Germany in the 1600th century. But it's combinated with the middleaged custom to celebrate before the fast. Sometimes you hear about the legend from Syracusa, where a girl gives her eyes to a pagan young man.
In our school, Nasbyparksskolan, we celebrate Santa Lucia outside very early in the morning while it's still dark. Our Santa Lucia is coming in a carriage pulled by a very small horse. She is followed by Santa Claus on a big horse and a lot of girls and boys in white gowns and a lot of candles. They all sing traditional Christmas songs and read poems.
After the cermony we all eat gingercockies and bread with saffron. To celebrate Santa Lucia is very important to Swedish people. You can look at pictures from our celebration on our homepage.
Best regards from class 4c in Nasbyparksskolan
This text can be found in the KIDLINK Multi-Cultural Calendar.