Today, December 13, is Saint Lucy’s Day (Santa Lucia in Swedish) in Sweden. On this day girls or young women dress up in white robes and the chosen St. Lucy places a crown of candles or lights in her hair, The other girls/women are referred to as “Tärnor”. Boys dress up in white robes and wear white cones on their heads. Some of the boys dress up as gnomes. Then they march through the streets or inside buildings. They sing songs and hand out Lucia buns, gingerbread cookies and other goodies. They typically do this early in the morning while it is still dark. If the Lucia group is inside, you typically turn off the lights to create the right ambiance.
This evening my daughter surprised me by baking the traditional saffron buns, so called Lusse Bullar or Lucia Buns in English. She prepared a Swedish meatball dinner and dressed up as St. Lucia. I had completely forgotten about St. Lucy, so it was a surprise. She did not want her picture online, so I am including online photos of St. Lucia.
St. Lucy takes place during the Nobel Week. The Nobel award ceremony happen on December 10. It should be noted that we often speak of the Nobel Prize, but there are six Nobel Prizes. The prizes for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Economics, are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Peace prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway.
Anyway, On December 13 a St. Lucy parade visit and sometimes surprise the Nobel Prize winners in Stockholm who are staying for a few days (they stay at the Grand Hotel). In the past, these surprises did not always work out well, as the St. Lucy group of white dressed women sometimes frightened laurates from East Asia. In East Asia white dressed women are often thought of as ghosts (yūrei and onryō). Think of Samara Morgan in the Ring movies. Therefore, they modified how the Lucia train (as it is called) marches through the hotel. For example, they no longer show up in people’s rooms unannounced.
As a little piece of interesting information this is a list of this year’s Nobel Prize winners.
- Physics: Pierre Agostini; Ferenc Krausz; Anne L’Huillier – “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.”
- Chemistry: Moungi Bawendi; Louis E. Brus; Alexey Ekimov – “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots.”
- Physiology or Medicine: Katalin Karikó; Drew Weissman – “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”
- Literature: Jon Fosse – for “his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”.
- Economics: Claudia Goldin – “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”.
- Peace Prize: Narges Mohammadi – “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.
Leonberger Life 