With Good Reason

It seems that as soon as we swallow the last mouthful of turkey for Thanksgiving at the end of November, we rush to prepare for Christmas or, if we are Jewish, Hanukkah. Between these two events, though, is a holiday about which most North Americans know little but which is widely celebrated in other countries: St. Lucy’s Day.

St. Lucy’s Day falls on December 13. This is the alleged date of death of the original St. Lucy, a Christian martyr who lived in Syracuse , Sicily in Roman times. According to legend, as a young woman she took a vow of virginity to Christ, which did not please her pagan suitor. After trying unsuccessfully to make her marry him, he stabbed her to death in frustration. Another legend has it that once upon receiving a comment from a man about her beautiful eyes, she gouged them out in order to discourage other potential beaus. Her eyes were miraculously restored to her, however. Lucy therefore became the patron saint of the blind. She is often pictured holding a plate with her eyes in it. Her association with vision, or lack of it, may stem from her name, which comes from the Latin word “lux” or “luc-” for light (as in the terms “translucent” and “lucid”).

St. Lucy gave her name to a song (the Neapolitan “Santa Lucia”), a school for the visually impaired in Philadelphia , and even a nation, Saint Lucia , a Caribbean island allegedly first sighted by Europeans on December 13, 1502. But her best-known legacy is the holiday observed on the date of her death. In Sicily - Lucy’s birthplace - this day is celebrated by the preparation of a cooked wheat dish called cuccia, sometimes eaten with fried cheese or eggs. There and in other parts of Italy , torchlight processions – again we see her name associated with light – take place on December 13. Switzerland also holds St. Lucy celebrations whereby a girl dressed as the saint goes around the neighbourhood handing out gifts. On the other hand, in Hungary the holiday has a somewhat Halloweenish quality, with children going door to door asking for treats or playing pranks. In next-door Slovakia , people dress in white and paint their faces in flour, going from house to house offering to sweep their neighbours’ floors.

While St. Lucy’s Day is observed throughout Europe, it reaches its zenith in Scandinavia, especially Sweden . Known as Luciadagen (Lucy’s Day) there, it is celebrated as a festival of lights, at a time of year when light is particularly scarce at such northern latitudes. According to Swedish tradition, one girl in the family, generally the eldest daughter, dresses up as a “Lucy” in a white gown, red sash and metal crown with lighted candles. She rises early on the morning of December 13 to bring her family special treats called “Lussekatter” (literally, Lucy’s cats), saffron buns in the shape of cats. Some scholars believe that Luciadagen absorbed earlier celebrations in honour of the Norse goddess Freya, who is frequently portrayed sitting in a cart drawn by cats – hence the Lussekatter on this day.

St. Lucy’s Day in Sweden goes beyond the home, however. In some towns a girl dressed as the saint is chosen to bring Lussekatter not only to her family but to everyone in that particular village. In larger cities young Lucies do the same for hospital patients, nursing home residents and other people not fortunate enough to enjoy the event outside. Stockholm even hosts a beauty pageant of sorts in which a “Lucy” is elected by a jury (my father, who is Sicilian, once remarked that the blondes who participate in this contest probably look very unlike the original St. Lucy).

The holiday is also celebrated in many parts of Latin America , thanks to the Spanish Catholic influence. In Puerto Rico it is observed as the Day for the Blind. Most North Americans, on the other hand, do not know much if anything about St. Lucy’s Day. Nonetheless, some Swedish-American communities do take note of it. A recent article in fact told of an Ikea branch in Los Gatos , California that held a festival of lights on December 13 for local Swedish residents and their families. The holiday receives notice as well in New York ’s Little Italy as the feast of Santa Lucia.

Being of partial Scandinavian descent myself, this year I have decided to pay tribute to St. Lucy’s Day by making some Lussekatter. But whether you are Scandinavian or not, you might look at this recipe for Lussekatter at www.kensmen.com/catholic/ and prepare some for yourself and your family. So enjoy the Lussekatter and St. Lucy’s Day – but remember the woman who started it all!