Advent Calendar - December 13 (Lucia) - Lina Granér

An actor's dreams and doubts present - December 13 (Lucia) - Lina Granér from Sweden. I couldn't create this Calendar without taking the chance to participate myself. This is my story for you:
 


Lina Lucia

Lucia

This December so far has been amazing. The Advent Calendar blog has been a light to look forward to in the otherwise so dark month.
 

In Sweden where I am from it is even darker. Some places in the north don’t see daylight at all during this time of the year. In all the darkness light becomes more important and people gather around candle lights and Xmas lights light up every little village. The 13^th of December is very special day connected to the Swedish Xmas celebrations. It is the Lucia day, the celebration of light returning to our part of the world. The modern celebration of Lucia is a mix of old Swedish traditions from before Christianity and later it has been mixed with the Christian traditions and with the legend of Saint Lucia from Syracuse in Italy. Sweden is not a very religious country anymore but many of the traditions have become part of the culture.
 

According to the pre-Christian beliefs the night of December 13^th was filled with supernatural activity so it was better to stay awake. Rituals were performed to ask the light to return to Scandinavia.
 

Today Lucia is celebrated over the whole country. Every school class has a Xmas party including a Lucia performance. The country selects the Lucia of the year and the celebration is broadcast on TV in the early morning of the 13^th.
 

The Lucia celebrations happen in the dark. It is a procession led by the Lucia who is dressed in white with a red ribbon around her waist and a crown with burning candles. After her the procession consists of girls or ladies dressed in white with glitter or red ribbons around their waists and glitter in their hair and a candle in their hands. Some of the boys or men will be dressed as something we call stjärngosse (starboy). The starboy has a white robe and a white cone with stars on it on his head and a wand with a star in his hand. Many of the kids will be dressed as tomtar (mini santas) and gingerbread cookies. I was a gingerbread cookie myself the first time I joined a Lucia procession as a two year old. The same night my brother was born.
 

I remember the excitement in primary school when we had our Xmas party and we were going to do our Lucia performance for our parents. At that time anyone could be the Lucia. No real candles in our hair but electrical versions of the Lucia crown. In the big hall at school all our parents and sibblings would sit and wait in the dark, eating Saffron buns and gingerbread cookies and drinking glögg. It was so quiet. The last minutes before we were allowed to walk into the hall and show them what we had been practicing for months were so long. Then the teacher would tell us to turn on our electric candles and we would start singing the Lucia song “Natten går tunga fjät” and slowly walk into the hall between all the tables and up onto the stage. We would sing several songs and read poems. It was magical.
 

Later in my teens Lucia turned into something of a popularity contest when only one of the girls at school could be selected Lucia. I didn’t belong to the pretty and popular crowd so I would walk further back in the procession as part of the choir while the Lucia would struggle with not falling over and burn someone with her candles including herself, being hangover from the Lucia vigil party the night before.
 

My most recent experience with Lucia was in one of the Meisner classes with my late teacher Jacqueline. I had chosen to get dressed and prepare for Lucia as an activity. I didn’t get that far because I wasn’t focused enough and people around me started making comments related to the Ku Klux Klan because of the similarity in the clothes. Jacqueline said it was a pity that I didn’t finish the activity because she really wanted to see what it looked like in real life. I never got to show her. So I made a little video for Jacqueline. 

Lina's Lucia

Have a look at the official celbrations to get a better idea of what Lucia is. I can really recommend it:

Lucia on Swedish national televison - SVT

 

December 13