We also have electric lightholders in the windows, or big stars, and many families have a lot of electric lights in their gardens
We also have a calender where we open one shutter every day from the 1st of December until Christmas Eve, the 24th.
On TV and in radio there are "calenders" too, and the calenders are made up by stories, one part for every day.
Lucia is a special day in Sweden. The 13th of December the Saint Lucia comes together with her maids, "starboys" and goblins. The Lucia procession sings Lucia songs and Christmas Carols.
They also give out coffee, ginger bread and a special kind of bun, called "Lucia cat".
They also give out coffee, ginger bread and a special kind of bun, called "Lucia cat".
We have trained for our Lucia Procession for months. We will perform three times, for all the citizens in Grimsås on Sunday, for the school children on Monday morning, and for the big factory Nexans on Monday afternoon.
Elin is Lucia this year, and all girls from class 3 to class 6 take part of the performance. And so do three boys, Daniel is among them.
We´ll send you some pictures from our Lucia procession on Tuesday.
Friday the 18th we finish school.
The most important day for Swedish people is Christmas Eve.
The Christmas tree is decorated, and many other Christmas decorations in the house. ( Most common are small Father Christmas figures.)
At lunch time many families "dip in the saucepan". You dip bread in the clear soup you get when you cook the ham.At 3 o´clock in the afternoon is an important time. Since many years TV sends "Donald Duck and his friends" - short cuts from Disney films.
In the evening it is time for the huge table with Christmas food -ham, meatballs, salmon, special sausages, herring, " Jansons temptation"and many other dishes.
And after that Sancta comes ( and we´ve got the real Sancta in Sweden- no mums or dads - we don´t understand what you mean :)) and gives gifts to everybody.
After that we eat sweets and cakes and we don´t feel well at all, actually....
Some people go to midnight mass, some people go to the early service at 7 on Chritmas day. Most people do not go to church at all - because we seem to have forgotten why we celebrate Christmas. That´s a real shame....
You asked how much money we raised on the market. About 400 euro. ( 4000 Swedish kronor)
We would like to go to Stockholm,Gothenburg.....we really haven´t decided yet.
Merry Christmas all of you! We meet again in 2010. We start school the 11th of January.
The concept Lussekatt had originally nothing to do with Lucia, but is etymologically traced to Lucifer, Ie the Devil. It was in Germany in the 1600s as the custom with Lussekatt arrived. The devil, in cat form, gave the child beating, while Jesus in the form of a child handed out brownies to the good children.[edit] To keep the shady devil away colored saffron buns with yellow saffron spice. The bright buns were scaring Saffron, ie Lucifer.[edit (from Swedish Wikipedia)
Interesting traditions, some are new for us. And buns look delicious. We wonder why do you call them "cat".
ReplyDeleteAnd your Christmas holidays are very long, lucky you. We finish school on 24th December and come back 4th January.
26th is Independence and Unity Day in Slovenia. We became independent in 1991.
We wish you a lot of luck with your Lucia performance!
Nice traditions and nice presentation !
ReplyDeleteWe finish the school on 11th December and come back 4th January.One week unpayed for teachers!
ReplyDelete