Hope And Light To All Of You

[Andy Sjostrom]

<a href="http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/lucia.htm">http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/lucia.htm</a><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/lucia_01.jpg" /><br /><br />Today is Lucia's Day, celebrated in Sweden, Norway and Finland. December is a dark and cold winter month and we welcome Lucia and her procession to bring hope and light. Today, I had breakfast at a hotel in Gothenburg. Dim lights, candles, Christmas atmosphere and enjoying the songs Lucia sang. Read on if you wish to learn more about Lucia's Day! Also, please tell us about your "pre-Christmas" traditions from where you live! <!><br /><br />"It is Lucia's day, the festival of light, celebrated in memory of the Italian Saint Lucia. In the early hours of the morning a young woman, dressed in white and wearing a crown of blazing candles, brings light into the dark winter at homes, hospitals, schools and offices, serving steaming coffee with ginger biscuits and saffronbread for everybody. There are Lucia processions everywhere and every village elects its own Lucia. The 'Lucia Queen' leads the processions mostly consisting of a group of young girls and boys singing traditional carols. Lucia's day symbolically opens the Christmas celebrations in Scandinavia, bringing hope and light during the darkest months of the year. The most typical Lucia celebration is the Lucia Procession, which consists of a group of young girls and boys singing traditional songs. Every town elects a Lucia, and she will go on a parade through the streets dressed in white with a red ribbon round her waist and wearing a chandelier on her head. Lucia is accompanied by her attendants, who are dressed similarly, and by the 'star boys', who wear cone-shaped hats decorated with stars. They visit schools, hospitals, offices and churches, and bring coffee and sweets to everybody. The traditional Scandinavian baking for this celebration is ginger biscuits and saffronbread."

[jizmo]

A minor correction; it's not limited to swedish speaking areas. The Lucia -day is celebrated all over Finland.

http://www.yle.fi/svenska/lucia/lucia2002.php

Anyway, Happy Lucia's Day to you swedes too :angel:

/jizmo

[Andy Sjostrom]

A minor correction; it's not limited to swedish speaking areas. The Lucia -day is celebrated all over Finland.

Thanks! Now corrected! :)

[jizmo]

Here, I also had to draw a Lucia -emoticon, since there doesn't seem to exist any. Feel free to use it.

Happy Lucia's Day, all http://koti.mbnet.fi/vgames/hymy/lucia.gif

/jizmo

[alan williams]

Pre-Christmas traditions?

Um...we drink a lot...no, wait...we kinda do that all year 'round.

We actually take quite a bit of time to make gifts for family. Long standing tradition and all that.

[don dre]

Lucia is welcome here anytime. Since we are 96% men I'm sure you know what I mean. WE don;t have anything special really. Just holiday parties with families and friends....and many of us drink the nog. mmm.. nog. Does anyone know what the shoe hanging in Mexico is all about? I'm curious.

[Daniel]

In Australia pre-Christmas consists of going to the beach and getting pissed (ie. drunk).

Yes, the lady is most welcome to join us.

Daniel

[Tomcat RIO]

Well, since I've been lurking for about 6mo without commenting.....and this seems like a pretty neutral topic...
In the States, putting up a Christmas tree and decorating it in early December is one of the most common ways familys prepare for Christmas at home.....but, after seeing 'Lucia' (at least the one you posted), we are always open to new traditions!!

[Foo Fighter]

A cute looking chic wearing candles on her head? That sounds like the last New Year's Eve party I went to. :drinking:

Octoberfest was a wild time as well. You should have seen the prank I pulled on my sister! :lol:

[Jimmy Dodd]

Anybody that brings coffee is welcome in my house. :lol:

[WindWalker]

We have created the tradition of having our Christmas tree decoration become a family and friends event......weinvite opur friends in, and do the whole thing up with dinner, Christmas ornaments, Christmas carols, and good companionship. THis year we were blacked out by the Ice Storm of '02 down here in North Carolina, but w'll be back in '03...

By the way.....the unfortunately obscure band Aztec Camera did a song about the Saint Lucia holiday called Black Lucia.....he (lead singer/songwriter Roddy Frame) was referring to the time he was touring in Sweden and a young African girl was Lucia for the year. Pretty good pop tune if you likethat kind of music.

"she's not your blue eyed girl, no diamond calling...she's a darkened sky, a crystal light"

Now......off to put the Axim in my shopping cart for the 5th time...I CAN write this off as a business expense, right??? 8O

[TopDog]

A cute looking chic wearing candles on her head?

All Norwegian/Swedish girl are cute looking, espesially in the winter, their smiles warms a cold pocketpc-heart :-)

[Duncan]

In the UK Christmas traditionally starts in August when the Woolworths chain store produces its first Christmas display.

In November we begin the period of 'Retail Hostility' - during which it is traditional to push, shove and be generally bad tempered in shops. Children are expected to moan, complain, whine, cry and bicker. The height of this is the week before Christmas where it ends with the great last minute 'There Must Be Something We Can Get Them' shopping period.

In December we have the annual - 'Christmas Card Decision Day' - where we sit with piles of cheap and tacky cards trying to decide who we send cards to this year - much fun ensues as we try to remember who sent cards to us last year and find up-to-date addresses sent throughout the past year...

Christmas Day is, of course, celebrated by watching numerous TV specials of shows we don't usually watch anywayand films from 20 years ago - and eating to the point where we feel bloated and ill.

The day after Boxing Day is the annual - 'Thank God That's Over' Day... :roll:

[jizmo]

All Norwegian/Swedish girl are cute looking, espesially in the winter, their smiles warms a cold pocketpc-heart :-)

Sounds to me you've never been to Finland? :wink:

But I admit, Norwegian and Swedish girl are quite cute too :twisted:

/jizmo

[Daniel]

The day after Boxing Day is the annual - 'Thank God That's Over' Day... :roll:

Correct me if I'm wrong but Boxing Day isn't celebrated in the US. Why is that? Australians love boxing day because there is a cricket match to watch and it's a great day to go to the beach and get drunk. Well, most every day is a good day to go to the beach and get drunk but anyway. :)
What is Boxing day anyway? Where people put all the Christmas food in a box?

Daniel

[Jimmy Dodd]

The day after Boxing Day is the annual - 'Thank God That's Over' Day... :roll:

Correct me if I'm wrong but Boxing Day isn't celebrated in the US. Why is that? Australians love boxing day because there is a cricket match to watch and it's a great day to go to the beach and get drunk. Well, most every day is a good day to go to the beach and get drunk but anyway. :)
What is Boxing day anyway? Where people put all the Christmas food in a box?

Daniel

We don't celebrate Boxing Day as we're all standing in the return line at Best Buy for the week following Christmas. :D

[ECOslin]

We have the 'get-to-the-mall' traffic jam, two miles long. These folks haven't realized that nothing 'gift-worthy' remains in the stores, but they still have to get there. It must be the subliminals in the Xmas music.

Edward

[ECOslin]

When I lived in Germany, I used to spend a fair amount of time and money in the Christmas villages buying a new set of very fragile glass xmas tree ornaments every year. I miss that. I'd considered trying to learn glassworking just to do my own.

Edward

[Kati Compton]

What is Boxing day anyway? Where people put all the Christmas food in a box?


No - that's Tupperware Day.

[Duncan]

Boxing Day is a British Holiday (actually St. Stephen's Day) celebrated throughout the Colonies - except the US (who made the mistake, of course, of leaving the Empire and so were banned from celebrating Boxing Day :wink: ).

No-one knows the true origin of Boxing Day (though there is a theme to all the theories!) but as always the splendid Stopes Urban Legends site has all the theories summarised:

Although there is general agreement that the holiday is of British origin and it has to do with giving presents to the less fortunate, there is still dispute as to how the name came about or precisely what unequal relationship is being recognized.

At various times, the following "origins" have been loudly asserted as the correct one:

1

Centuries ago, ordinary members of the merchant class gave boxes of food and fruit to tradespeople and servants the day after Christmas in an ancient form of Yuletide tip. These gifts were an expression of gratitude to those who worked for them, in much the same way that one now tips the paperboy an extra $20 at Christmastime or slips the building's superintendent a bottle of fine whisky. Those long-ago gifts were done up in boxes, hence the day coming to be known as "Boxing Day."

2

Christmas celebrations in the old days entailed bringing everyone together from all over a large estate, thus creating one of the rare instances when everyone could be found in one place at one time. This gathering of his extended family, so to speak, presented the lord of the manor with a ready-made opportunity to easily hand out that year's stipend of necessities. Thus, the day after Christmas, after all the partying was over and it was almost time to go back to far-flung homesteads, serfs were presented with their annual allotment of practical goods. Who got what was determined by the status of the worker and his relative family size, with spun cloth, leather goods, durable food supplies, tools, and whatnot being handed out. Under this explanation, there was nothing voluntary about this transaction; the lord of the manor was obligated to supply these goods. The items were chucked into boxes, one box for each family, to make carrying away the results of this annual restocking easier; thus, the day came to be known as "Boxing Day."

3

Many years ago, on the day after Christmas, servants in Britain carried boxes to their masters when they arrived for the day's work. It was a tradition that on this day all employers would put coins in the boxes, as a special end-of-the-year gift. In a closely-related version of this explanation, apprentices and servants would on that day get to smash open small earthenware boxes left for them by their masters. These boxes would house small sums of money specifically left for them.
This dual-versioned theory melds the two previous ones together into a new form; namely, the employer who was obligated to hand out something on Boxing Day, but this time to recipients who were not working the land for him and thus were not dependent on him for all they wore and ate. The "box" thus becomes something beyond ordinary compensation (in a way goods to landed serfs was not), yet it's also not a gift in that there's nothing voluntary about it. Under this theory, the boxes are an early form of Christmas bonus, something employees see as their entitlement.

4

Boxes in churches for seasonal donations to the needy were opened on Christmas Day, and the contents distributed by the clergy the following day. The contents of this alms box originated with the ordinary folks in the parish who were thus under no direct obligation to provide anything t all and were certainly not tied to the recipients by a employer/employee relationship. In this case, the "box" in "Boxing Day" comes from that one gigantic lockbox the donations were left in.

[Mike Wagstaff]

And there was me thinking that Boxing Day was so called because of what you were supposed to do to anybody who gave you a present you didn't appreciate... :D