"The day is to honor Santa Lucia, a young Christian girl who was martyred, killed for her faith, in 304AD. The most common story told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She would wear candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things. Lucy means 'light' so this is a very appropriate name. December 13th was also the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year."
The holiday evolved in Sweden and is also celebrated in other Scandinavian countries. I've wanted to start celebrating Santa Lucia for a couple years but this is the first year we've made it happen. My great-grandparents emigrated to the US from Sweden and I really like Ikea so I'm practically a Swede myself--1/8 from ancestry and at least 1/8 from all the Ikea things we own.
My cute mom served her mission in Sweden so we are glad she joined in our celebration.
Traditional attire is a long white dress with a red sash. Good thing the seamstress made Lizzie's blessing dress to fit "newborn to age three" because she can use it as a Santa Lucia dress for the next couple years. :) Please excuse the flash shawdow.
Traditionally the oldest daughter gets to play the role of Santa Lucia but we let them both dress up. Though Samara got the responsibility of "waking" everyone up and serving them dinner. Her pet Hugo was the star boy. Crown pattern found here. One of the traditional foods served is saffron buns. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find saffron so when I saw a bread wreath, I decided to give it a try.
I am a very much a novice baker especially with bread stuff. Usually anything I try with yeast ends up flat and freaky but this turned out. Actually following all the steps in the recipe apparently yields great results!
The bread is really good. It has orange peel and an orange glaze. It's just the right amount of flavor without being too sweet.
Find the recipe here.
What a fun tradition! I always wanted to celebrate this as a girl, after reading about it in an American Girl book. (Kirsten was my favorite!)
ReplyDeleteI'm so impressed you celebrated! All our YW sang the traditional Santa Lucia song in Swedish in our ward for our Christmas party. They turned out the lights and they were also dressed appropriately (although the bishop decided not to let the boys wear their white hats because they resemble a certain cult too closely). It was really neat to see them bring in the light and of course hear their beautiful voices. We have an expat Swedish family in our ward and they taught our youth the songs!
ReplyDeleteAnd you're bread looks amazing (and you did a fabulous job photographing it)! Here's to following the directions when baking!!!
You did an AMAZING job doing Santa Lucia, I love those crowns, the happy girls, and I think it's so adorable that Samara has her dog w/ the Santa Lucia boy hat. The bread looks divine, thank you for sharing recipe!
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