Lucia
Why do we celebrate Lucia or Saint Lucia’s Day? Why do we eat lussekatter? And what does Lucia look like? The celebration of festivals and folk traditions amongst the people of the Nordic societies is one of Nordiska museet’s areas of expertise. Here you can find out more about the tradition of Lucia based on the museum’s collections and expertise.
Lucia – a tradition with many influences
Today, Lucia is associated with a white-clad figure wearing a crown of candles, accompanied by attendants, star boys and sometimes a Santa. They carry candles and sing Lucia and Christmas songs. This form of the celebration became common in the 1950s and is now found in schools, workplaces, hospitals, care homes, private homes and on television.
Historically, Lucia is much older and one of Sweden’s most diverse traditions, with influences from several periods, places and religions. Its elements include an Italian saint, medieval carnivals, a Neapolitan boat song and a festive tradition from western Sweden. Over time, Lucia has been both simple and extravagant, humorous and serious, sacred and profane, popular and aristocratic, private and public.
In the Swedish Catholic calendar, Lucia was a saint’s day on 13 December until the 16th century. In the peasant society, the night of Lucia was associated with dangers and supernatural beings and was also considered a time for predicting the coming year. The name Lucia was sometimes associated through its sound with Lucifer, the Devil himself. In northern Sweden, legends tell of Lucia as a mountain woman who led supernatural beings on Lucia night.
From folk tradition to modern Lucia
The tradition associated with today’s Lucia celebration originated in western Sweden in the 19th century, where Lucia Day was a festive occasion. The custom spread to university towns and organizations from the mid-19th century and throughout Sweden during the 20th century.
The western Swedish celebration was a carnival-like local tradition known as Little Christmas Eve or Lusse Long Night. People dressed up, ate large quantities of food and went from place to place collecting food and drink. The Lusse bride was a comic figure, sometimes dressed in straw or represented by a straw doll. The celebration resembled a Halloween procession, with food either eaten by the group or given to someone in need.
In the Lusse processions of the late 19th century, there were Lusse brides, Lusse women and Lusse men, and dressing across gender lines was common. An early description of a white-clad Lucia with a candle crown actually concerns a farmhand in Skinnskatteberg in 1820. Such playful gender-crossing themes are classic elements of rituals and popular storytelling.
Saint Lucia and the white-clad Lucia
The name Lucia comes from the Latin lux, meaning light. The saint legend tells of Lucia of Syracuse, a wealthy Christian virgin who lived in Syracuse, Sicily, in the late 3rd century. She was sentenced to death for her faith and killed on 13 December 304. According to the legend, the flames failed to harm her and she was eventually killed with a sword. She was later canonized by the Catholic Church and her feast day became 13 December, the day of her death.
The oldest known evidence of a white-clad Lucia visiting people in the morning dates from 1764 at Horns, an upper-class estate in western Sweden. She had angel wings and carried candlesticks. The western Swedish Lusse bride of the 19th century, however, had little in common with the saint and could be described as either beautiful and desirable or ugly and promiscuous.
The oldest known image of a Lucia is Fritz von Dardel’s watercolour Lucia Day at Koberg, from 1848.
How the Lucia procession took shape
Skansen played an important role in spreading and shaping the modern Lucia tradition. Lucia celebrations began there in the 1890s, when Artur Hazelius wanted to portray “old rural customs” from western Sweden. At the time, Lucia, star boys and other figures had not yet begun appearing together and the tradition was still relatively unfamiliar in Stockholm.
Stockholm Dagblad organized a Lucia competition in 1928. The winning Lucia was taken in procession with electric lights in her crown, and the concept spread to other newspapers. Lucia thus entered the mass media and became increasingly popular.
The melody of the Lucia song comes from Italy, Sul mare luccica (Santa Lucia), probably with a folk origin. The Swedish lyrics were written in the 1920s.
The star boys and other figures in today’s Lucia processions have their origins in medieval Catholic church plays, including Epiphany plays depicting the birth of Christ. In rural Sweden, these became popular Christmas and Epiphany processions. The star boys represented the Three Wise Men and could be accompanied by Herod, Mary, Joseph, the Christmas goat and soldiers. A possible model for today’s singing Lucia was the singing angel, who wore a long white robe, sometimes wings, and a crown of lingonberry branches, gold or silver paper.
Lussekatter and Lucia around the world
The sweet wheat bread duivekater from Holland and northern Germany was probably brought to Gothenburg by Dutch people in the 17th century. In Swedish, the name sounded like “dyvelskatter” or devil’s cats. When the buns became associated with 13 December, they were renamed lussekatter. The S-shape is now the most common, while saffron began to be used at the end of the 19th century.
Lucia has spread to most other Nordic countries and has acquired new meanings in some places. In Finland, it has become an important identity symbol for the Swedish-speaking minority. During the 20th century, Lucia also became a symbol of Sweden abroad. Swedish communities in countries such as Spain and the United States have used Lucia celebrations as a way of maintaining community; Swedish-American associations began holding Lucia celebrations as early as the 1920s.
In recent years, Lucia has also become the subject of debate over who should participate and which roles they should have. The tradition has changed identity over the centuries: from humorous and noisy to serious and solemn, and eventually acceptable to the Church of Sweden. Its lack of a fixed or uniform form, historically and today, helps explain why it can sometimes be provocative.
The 20th-century image of Lucia as blonde has no cultural-historical basis. History instead shows a tradition with many cultural and historical layers, particularly concerning gender, appearance and ritual. Today’s Lucia celebration is largely a mediated tradition that has come to symbolize older Swedish and Nordic culture on questionable grounds.
Lucia through the centuries
Medieval period: Priest students walk star boy processions through parishes during the Christmas holidays, inspired by Catholic church plays.
1600s: Star boys representing the Three Wise Men sing songs in villages around Epiphany. The tradition survives today, among other places on Möja in the Stockholm archipelago.
1764: Lucia appears with wings and serves Lucia treats to the people at an estate.
1700s–1800s: Male Lucias at universities. The nation’s most beautiful first-year student was often chosen as Lucia.
1800s: Costumed young people walk through villages in Lusse processions, begging for food and drink. The Lusse bride is often described as ugly and promiscuous.
1820s: The first known Lucia with lights in her hair – a farmhand at Skinnskatteberg Manor in Västmanland.
Mid-1800s: Lucia celebrations spread from western Sweden, primarily among the upper classes.
1892: Lucia celebrations begin at Skansen in Stockholm to showcase local traditions from western Sweden.
Late 1800s: Lucia celebrations spread to Finland.
1928: Lucia becomes a media competition organized by Stockholm Dagblad. Attendants, star boys and Santas take part.
1944: The Lucia tradition spreads to Denmark as a silent protest against the German occupation.
1950s: Lucia celebrations become widespread in Sweden and spread to Norway.
1990s: Lucia celebrations spread to the Baltic states after the fall of the Soviet Union.
2000s: Strong emotions arise when school staff try to limit or control which characters may or may not take part in Lucia processions.
2016: An Åhléns campaign featuring a young boy as Lucia causes an uproar on social media, after which video clips of Zlatan Ibrahimović as Lucia go viral.
2018–2019: Difficulty finding candidates for Lucia competitions as beauty contests are perceived as outdated.
2022: A Lucia procession by students from Bollnäs Folk High School for the Gävleborg Regional Council is stopped at the last minute by a local Sweden Democrat politician. The reason given is that the Lucia did not identify as a woman. The politician himself says that the issue was that the procession should not be traditional.
What do people in Nordics celebrate, and how?
As a museum of cultural history, Nordiska museet documents everyday life and festive occasions in the Nordic region. For example, we research: What do people celebrate, and how? What do the traditions and rituals of yesterday and today look like? And what role do they play in our social life?
We have been gathering knowledge about traditions since the late 19th century
Since the late 19th century, we have been documenting and gathering knowledge about traditions and rituals in people’s everyday lives and celebrations, which represent festivals and traditions. This knowledge takes the form of artefacts, photographs, folk memories and transcribed interviews featuring examples of rituals and traditions.
We have also collected and documented this material through fieldwork (that is, documenting celebrations on site), sending out questionnaires, interviewing people and, more recently, through digital collections.
Traditions change and are dynamic
Over the 150 years that the collections have been in existence, there have been enormous social changes in Sweden and the Nordic region. Traditions and social patterns are also dynamic and change: traditions are born, transformed and evolve in line with people, the times and the media. We continuously analyse the material in the light of both contemporary processes and historical circumstances.
Many factors shape and change celebrations
In short, it can be said that celebrations today reflect a multitude of influences from past social structures, from our own time, from migration, as well as social, economic and technological change.
Festivals and festive celebrations in the Nordic region are strongly influenced by the Christian faith, changes in society and values. Further factors include folk and supernatural- beliefs, folk religion and folk values that can be traced back to Nordic peasant society.
Over the 150 years that Nordiska museet has been gathering knowledge about traditions and rituals linked to festivals and special days of the year, there have been enormous social changes in Sweden and the Nordic region. Traditions are born, transformed and evolved in tandem with time and it’s people.
Ritual?
Over the past 150 years, research perspectives and concepts have also changed. A key fundamental concept is that of ritual. This refers to the practical observance – what people do in connection with a festival, tradition, specific day, time of year or event. Such as eating semlor, hiding Easter eggs, lighting candles in cemeteries or going ‘trick-or-treating’.
Rituals often involve symbols, such as the Christmas tree, the Midsummer maypole, waffles and semlor, or, for that matter, the crisps and dip enjoyed during Friday nights for the ultimate “fredagsmys”.
Tradition?
You could say that a ritual becomes a tradition when people attach particular value to the ritual and the celebration, without these necessarily having to be particularly old or widespread.
This definition, too, reflects the perspective of academic research. However, in everyday speech, the terms ‘ritual’, ‘tradition’, ‘festival’ and ‘custom’ are often used interchangeably. When we talk about traditions here, we are generally referring to rituals that are particularly valued; Christmas celebrations are one example.
Religious festivals
Another important term is ‘festival’ (högtid), which refers to rituals that are more closely linked to religious calendars. In the Nordic countries, the Christian calendar has dominated, but other religious calendars play an important role as well.
The boundary between religious calendar rituals and secular rituals appears to be becoming increasingly blurred, reflecting the secularisation of society. Most people in Sweden celebrate religious festivals without paying attention to their religious connection.
Annual festivals and life-cycle celebrations
In addition to the church calendar, festivals have historically been shaped by the rhythm of the farming year and agriculture. These are known as annual festivals or calendar rites.
Many festivals are linked to the human life cycle, where church rites have been, and remain, of great significance.
However, as society changes, so does the significance of these rituals. Although many people are still baptised today, it is not uncommon for this to take place through non-church naming ceremonies.
Ever-changing and dynamic
One of the most important insights into rituals and traditions to emerge from research is that they change. Certain particularly transformative social changes have left a clear mark on both everyday life and on rituals and festivals.
Perhaps the most significant from a cultural-historical perspective are the role of the church, as well as urbanisation, democratisation, the welfare state and the pursuit of social justice.
Contemporary life and tradition
As the Nordic countries became increasingly urbanised, economic conditions changed. People were no longer producing goods simply to provide for themselves. The family was transformed into a unit of consumption, able to purchase all the goods marketed in connection with festive occasions.
Traditions and festivals follow people’s movements between communities. Some are upheld, others fade away, and some take on a different meaning.
