Friday,
December 08, 2006
Swedes Start Christmas Season with Santa
Lucia, Medieval Italian Saint
The
ANNOTICO Report
"Early
in the morning on Dec. 13, Santa Lucia, the Queen of Light, comes into your
bedroom. She is a young girl, a daughter, relative or friend of the family,
dressed in white, bearing a lighted crown on her head, singing the Lucia song
and offering coffee and the traditional Lucia buns." This is how the
Swedes celebrate the return of the light at the Solstice, and commemorates the
start of the Christmas season.
The
young woman bringing food and drink represents generosity and the lights she
wears remind everyone that the long, warm days are coming to balance out the
dark of winter.
Santa
Lucia is a very early Medieval Italian Saint, recognized for her kindness and
generosity. Her name, derived from the Latin word lux,
meaning light.
Therefore,
it seems so logical, that the days being only a few hours long at this
time of year in
WARNING:
Even though the tradition calls for a wreath of lit candles, the modern Swedes
use battery operated ones for safety. :) :)
NorthCoastJournal
by
Katherine Almy
December
7, 2006
The days are only a few
hours long at this time of year in
"Early in
the morning on Dec. 13, Santa Lucia, the Queen of Light, comes into your
bedroom. She is a young girl, a daughter, relative or friend of the family,
dressed in white, bearing a lighted crown on her head, singing the Lucia song
and offering coffee and the traditional Lucia buns." This is how the
Swedes celebrate the solstice, as explained to me by artist Claire Iris Schencke. For Swedes throughout the world, it is the start
of the Christmas season.
For the past
three years, Iris has brought this celebration to Arcata in her own way,
through her art. At Hank's Coffee Shop,
Iris started the
tradition in 2004, after a visit to her parents in
The church is
small and simple, with a clean, whitewashed exterior and an elegant brick
archway over the door. Inside, the walls are decorated with intricately
patterned murals. The original artwork in the church has suffered the usual
battles of fleeting cultural likes and dislikes. The Catholic excesses of the
14th century were whitewashed over in the 17th, and subsequently restored in
the 20th. "The painted walls were revealed through a painstaking method
involving repeated blotting with loaves of bread," Iris explained. The
process left the artworks with the muted quality of antiquity, which Iris
replicates in some places; in others, she uses the bright colors that she
imagines they were originally, colors that typically predominate in her
paintings.
The brilliant
colors and sensual curves of her Santa Lucia break through all of the
stereotypes of Swedish austerity. Iris told me that her love of bright colors
may have been influenced by the few years she lived in
While Iris also
uses pastels, hand-made papers and other mediums, she works primarily with
watercolors, since she prefers their fluidity and their unpredictable nature.
Watercolor paints have a mind of their own, and Iris capitalizes on that,
giving the medium a measure of control over the direction of the final
painting. The result is loose and ethereal, but grounded by the rich colors and
textures.
The paintings are
about the Santa Lucia celebration, which is ostensibly Christian, but with
overlays from more ancient traditions that are more at the heart of Iris's
intentions. Santa Lucia is a very early Medieval Italian saint, recognized for
her kindness and generosity. Her name, derived from the Latin word lux, meaning light, connects her to the celebration
of the return of the light at the Solstice.
"As always
in these traditions," Iris explained, "there is a great deal of
confusion as to the origin, and all the Swedish Yule traditions contain this
mix of Paganism, a veneer of Catholicism and modern secular
interpretations." For Iris, the celebration is about "light, friends
and good food." The young woman bringing food and drink represents
generosity and the lights she wears remind everyone that the long, warm days
are coming to balance out the dark of winter.
Seeing these
paintings and talking with Iris got me thinking about what I enjoy about the
holidays: being with family, the warm hearth of a friend's house, cooking
favorite dishes, the smell of the kitchen, sharing a good meal. This is some of
what Iris brings to us from
So here is your
opportunity to take a break from the hectic holiday rush. Go to Hank's with a
friend, enjoy a cup of coffee and take in the warm colors of Iris' paintings.
...The local
Scandinavian community's Balder Lodge No. 343 has its annual St. Lucia Day
Celebration at the Odd Fellows Hall at
And if you'd like
to experience the flavor of this Swedish celebration, here's a recipe for Lucia
buns. If you want to have your daughter bring them to you on the morning of the
13th, though, do keep this in mind: Even though the tradition calls for a
wreath of lit candles, the modern Swedes use battery operated ones for safety. God
Jul!
The recipe
for the "Lucia Buns" is at the Site.
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ANNOTICO Reports
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