Lucia

[Darlica]

Today we celebrate Lucia in Sweden, also known as Saint Lucy in the English speaking world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy%27s_Day


As most swedes are protestants and usually don't celebrate saints the celebrating of Lucia is taking mostly profane expressions. Young folks are getting drunk on Glögg (sweet glühwine) among other things... 

Singing and lightning candles are I guess what is left of the old traditions, that and the Lussekatt sweet saffron buns with raisins or almonds.

I made saffron buns yesterday, so we could have some for breakfast to day.
I like this tradition it lights up the winter gloom, too bad I can't sing though, but I can light candles and bake so I'll stick to that.




Edit: I just read trough the wiki article... 
Of cause the heathens here wasn't afraid of the devil... The devil is a Christian figure pre-Christian religion here has no such creature, evil yes, devil no.

During the longest night of the year as during the shortest and the equinoxes the unseen comes out to play, and during the longest night the evil is dominant force and you did what you could to preserve your family your home and your animals against this evil. including keep the lights and fires burning trough the night, mark your houses, stables and larders with sacred symbols.   

Also every Lucia procession I ever seen has had one crowned "Lucia" or more (kids groups usually have more than one  ) I have never seen one without a crowned girl though.

[Lindorm]

Ah, yes, Wikipedia articles. There is certainly lots of amusing reading there...

Regarding all these holidays that are said to have ancient and pagan roots, and being based on various festivals and rituals to scare away ghosts/the devil/bad spirits or whatever, a stunningly large number of them are inventions of Victorian and Edwardian-era ethnologists and historians. Since quite a few of them were also good writers, and knew how to spin a suitably lurid tale, a lot of their wild tales are still percieved as "fact". The prime example is probaly Frazer and his "Golden Bough", but the good old Norse Academia had their moments, too. Lönnroth and the invention of the Kalevala, for example, or this magnificent ghastliness:




One part of the Lucia celebrations is certainly based on authentic medieval practices, though: The walking from house to house, singing both religious hymns and popular songs, is documented in several medieval sources, and already then considered old. In those days, it was the unmarried young men (absolutely no women!) who went from house to house, sometimes in disguise or wearing ceremonial clothing (varied a bit from region to region), singing in exchange for a gift of booze & goodies from the master of the household. Some of the oldest documented court cases in Sweden are related to drunk & disordely conduct, fighting, stabbings and "grieveous insults of public decency" that these walkabouts apparently ended with from time to time.

[Darlica]

That abomination...

But that is Midvinter Blot (midwinter sacrifice) we will get to that in about 8-10 days. 

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

...during the longest night the evil is dominant force and you did what you could to preserve your family your home and your animals against this evil. including keep the lights and fires burning trough the night...

So essentially it gets very cold and you do what ever is necessary to preserve from it?  

[Darlica]

In a way yes.

I guess the darkness had always inspired tales about what's out there.
Howling winds and sounds made by the critters of the forest must have been a source too. I mean all folklore has them, the tales of (nature) spirits of different alignment, of what hides in the darkness, in the densest forests, unchallengeable mountains, blackest waters, or in the morning fog.

Before the electricity the winters where very dark here, especially on the countryside (gas and street lights was for the cities), at this time of the year the the sun get up at 08:39 and sets at 14:47 here in Stockholm, in the most northern part of Sweden the sun doesn't get up at all.   
   

[Opsa]

Lucia seems like a charming custom.

Hey- I just finished paying pagan Duchess Drahomira, the mother of Saint Wenceslas, who plotted his murder. Charming lady, I enjoyed playing her very much! I even got to sing an evil solo about playing chess. Little did my other cast mates know I am technically Heathen in real life!

I just want to know about that gorgeous illustration seen above. If it's so cold, why is that guy naked, and what happened to the head on the person in the red cloak?

[Lindorm]

I just want to know about that gorgeous illustration seen above. If it's so cold, why is that guy naked, and what happened to the head on the person in the red cloak?

You have no idea what you are asking about...

Midvinterblot, "Midwinter sacrifice" or "Winter solstice sacrifice" is easily one of the most controversial paintings in Swedish art history. Back in the 1880'ies, a royal commission was set up to deal with the issue of the decoration of the recently inagurated National Museum, including the magnificent grand staircase hall. The task was a monumental one, in physical size as well as prestige-wise -and financially! For various reasons, the staircase hall turned out to be a tough nut to crack, with various competitions being held, suggestions rejected, academic infighting and incensed letters to the editor of the big morning papers and so on and so forth.

One of the winners was Carl Larsson, then (and now) one of Sweden's most famous, popular and successful painters. Carl Larsson was technically very skillful, and painted in a slightly romanticzied naturalistic style. He also happened to be interested in history, of the nationalistic-romantic sort. As a side note, it is interesting to compare the life, career and interest in history and folklore of Carl Larsson to that of Alphonse Mucha -they have quite a lot of similarities.

Carl Larsson's winning bid was for one of the lower floors of the grand staircase, with a painting depicting the festive entry of Gustavus Vasa into Stockholm on Midsummer's Eve 1523, with Stockholm and the wealthy burghers accepting him as the rightful king of Sweden. This painting was commissioned and finished in 1907. The opposite wall was also to be decorated, but the exact motif was not decided upon -though a Carl Larsson sketch of Gustavus Adolphus making landfall in Germany was generally thought of as the favourite.

A few years later, Carl Larsson dropped a bombshell -the sketches for Midvinterblot, depicting a king about to be sacrificed to the old norse gods for the good of the land and the people. The scene is based upon a note in an ancient chronicle called Ynglingatal, telling of how King Domald was sacrificed at the great temple in Uppsala to appease the gods after three years of famine. (Students of Frazer and The Golden Bough, take note.)

The man in the red cloak is the sacrificial priest, holding a dagger behind his back, and the naked beefcake is of course the king himself. Other features are ceremonial dancers in black on the left, the King's Men in arms on the right, musicians blowing in birch-bark and bronze horns, and of course the great pagan temple in the background.

The reception was, to put it mildly, not one of whole-hearted approval. Some accused Carl Larsson of "oriental gaudiness", or "theatrical burlesque", not to mention lewd nakedness. Others wondered what on earth the relevance of that motif was to the national museum of arts, or to Gustavus Vasa, or to anything. And even back then, the heaps upon heaps of anachronisms, spurious archeology, historical fancifulness and plain fabulation were commented acidly upon. Let's just say that when it comes to historical accuracy, Midvinterblot could make Braveheart look good.

After about five years of fighting, Carl Larsson gave up on the whole thing. The painting did by then exist as a full-scale canvas, and had been hung in the grand staircase for a while, as an experiment, but was never accepted by the board of directors for the national museum. Eventually, the painting ended up as a deposit at an art museum in Lund in southern Sweden, was then sold to an art dealer, and after a few years of international adventures was eventually bought back to Sweden and hung in the grand staircase of the National Museum, vindicating Carl Larsson about 80 years later.

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil:Nationalmuseum_trappa_2008b.jpg

Personally, I can't stand the painting -it's way to bombastic for me, not to mention all the anachronisms and the fact that parts of the neo-nazi movement here in Sweden have tried to promote it as an example of wholesome and properly patriotic art. I much prefer some of Carl Larsson's portraits of people in his surroundings -often common people, depicted with a lot of sensitivity and compassion,  a much lighter hand and often a splash of humour -for example, this self-portrait:




or this portrait of the local blacksmith:







Still, it is a spectacular painting, especially when you see it with your own eyes -it's almost seven metres wide, to start with.

[Swatopluk]

Hey- I just finished paying pagan Duchess Drahomira, the mother of Saint Wenceslas, who plotted his murder.

So you set a contract on him? Or did you pay ransom to save him?

---

Cynical me: Is girls accidentally setting their hair on fire a common problem given the proximity of burning candles to the typically long hair?

[Lindorm]

Cynical me: Is girls accidentally setting their hair on fire a common problem given the proximity of burning candles to the typically long hair?

Could be, yes. Back in the days when Cardus and I were young, it was still relatively common for all the candles to be real ones, with open flame and dripping wax. Underneath Lucia's crown of lights, she usually carried a head-cloth made out of tightly woven linen or cotton to stop dripping wax. Sometimes, the headcloth was also kept moistened. Lucia's crown of light wasn't the only hazard, either -her followers, the maids, the stjärngossar, the "star-carrying lads" and assorted stalledrängar, "stable-hands", also carries lit candles, albeit in their hands, and often in a wooden holder with a disc on top to protecte the hand from spilled wax. And even back then, a lot of the candles were replaced by battery-powered ones, and I suspect they all are nowadays.

But yes, both Carduus and I have witnessed people setting themselves, or others, on fire. At school Lucia celebrations, there usually was a sturdy schoolmarm or two stationed in the wings with woolen blankets and buckets of water to take care of things. Things did get a bit more interesting when the celebrants where in their teens and had gotten tipsy on illicit boze -hyper teen girls, long flowing robes, open flame, tipsniess, hairspray, fluffy glitter decorations all add up to something suspiciously like a recipe for disaster. Still, most of the times, nothing really happened and everything went well. 

[Opsa]

Hey- I just finished paying pagan Duchess Drahomira, the mother of Saint Wenceslas, who plotted his murder.

So you set a contract on him? Or did you pay ransom to save him?

CARP! I meant I played the Duchess. It was so much fun playing a villain. Got my picture on the front of the local paper and everything.

Fascinating story about the painting. Yes, it is bombastic, but truly spectacular. The other illustrations are wonderful, too. They remind me of Rien Poortvliet.

[Lindorm]

By the way, a few days ago I stumbled upon a collection of letters written by a student from southern Sweden during his time at Uppsala university in the 1750'ies. He gets "Lussad", gets a visit from Lucia and her followers one december morning in 1756 and finds it a quaint custom by the students from the rural province of Värmland. He himself, being from the more metropolitan southern town of Malmö, (which at that time had been in Swedish hands for about fifty years) has never heard about it before, so he writes a letter back home to his parents to tell them about the experience.  Some things never change, though -he found it especially quaint that the coffee-pot Lucia carried was filled, not with coffee, but with vodka. 

[pieces o nine]

My old Circle made Lucia-type crowns one Yule, using roughly-head-sized advent wreath forms (complete wiv small candle holders soldered in place). We carefully reshaped the circles into more of an oval, wrapped 'em in small-scale yuletide greenery accented with pine cones (or whatever elemental symbol appealed to the maker) and finished them off with battery operated candles that fit the holder perfectly. It was great fun and I still have mine...somewhere...