Today is the celebration of St. Lucia in Sweden. We celebrate by lighting candles on our children’s’ heads while demanding they sing and bring us breakfast.
Or a nicer way to put it is – It’s a celebration of light in the darkness. Many children dress in white robes with a ring of candles around their head (usually fake) or a pointed star hat and bring their parents saffron buns for breakfast. I haven’t trained my children to do this yet as I don’t trust them not to spill my coffee, but maybe we need to start practicing for next year.
The main thing that happens at Lucia time is that all of the children also dress in their robes to sing Christmas songs at early morning church services and at their schools. This means, if you have any business dealings with Sweden on December 13, you may not get much of an answer before 9am as all of the parents are watching these performances.
So if you see small people running around like ghosts today with their hair full of fire, don’t worry – it’s just a holiday. Sit back, have a saffron bun and enjoy the show.