Our Lucia Day

Johannesburg hasn't been our first experience living abroad. We loved our time living in Stockholm Sweden from 2000-2001. John's ancestry includes amazing men and women from that fascinating country, and we embraced many of the cultures and traditions of that Nordic land (God Jul to all our lovely friends in the cold dark north!).

One of the traditions we brought home is St. Lucia day. December 13 marks the day when Swedes celebrate light; Lucia being the Saint of light. On this day throughout Sweden lovely maids dress in tradition Lucia cladder and all of the country rises early to see her usher in the Christ child's coming and celebrate the lengthening of the short days soon to come as the winter equinox approaches. Special songs are sung and the Lucia bullar (lucia bun) is made and shared with family and friends. The eldest daughter in every household rises very early (accompanied by her mother I'm sure) and prepares the lucia buns and a bit of coffee (in our house its hot chocolate) and brings her parents breakfast in bed. The songs Lucia and her kvel sing are full of lovely references to light and Christmas, and entire stadiums are filled for night after night to hear these songs performed in concert every year.

At our house we spread around Lucia's responsibilities as best we can among the girls. Lucia buns, which are flavored with saffron, are not well loved in our home so we instead make the standard Swedish Kanelbullar (cinnamon bun) and enjoy lovely singing and buns and hot cocoa brought to dad in bed with the children dressed in their luciakladder (Lucia clothes) and candles lit to honor the sentiment of the day. Not a year has passed by that we haven't celebrated the day with pepparkoker (ginger cookies) brought to school and most years the kids' teachers have asked that we enjoy sharing our tradition with their classes. It is a lovely reminder of our time in Sweden and a holiday I cherish and enjoy very much.

This year things were quite a bit different. Without a key ingredient for our kanelbullar, making our buns was a little challenging. No lucia costumes could be found for the day, and there were no schoolmates to share our tradition with; we are the school. Still, our Brynley brightly rose first thing, and delivered to our bedside a delicious breakfast. Her lovely smile and cheerful countenance matched or exceeded and wreath of candles she could have worn in her hair, the brightness of her spirit was whiter than any lovely gown she could have worn. We made our buns, sharing the recipe and our time with Evie, who lives here with us and enjoyed trying to "tie" the dough in just the right fashion so as to have them shaped just right. We blasted Lucia's music through the house thanks to Itunes (downloading music has become a natural part of my life this Christmas season...) and we worked to keep the tradition living, even if limping, along.

I'm sure we'll pull out the costumes for next year's Lucia Day. And the pearl sugar that is not available in Johannesburg will be lovingly sprinkled all over our kanelbullar. Kids will take cookies to school and teachers will invite our children to explain their Swedish heritage and ex-pat experience. But I'm not sure any Lucia will be as memorable as this has been, thanks to the light of our Brynley and the love of Evie shared in the tying of the dough into little knots of tradition.