Lusse Lelle!
The Principality of Lorenzburg wishes a happy Saint Lucy’s day to kin, friends, citizens and allies. We hope you take the time to celebrate with fresh saffron cake and lots of tinsel.
Saint Lucy’s Day, also called the Feast of Saint Lucy, is a Christian feast day celebrated on December 13, in Advent, commemorating Saint Lucy, a martyr under the Diocletianic Persecution, who according to legend brought “food and aid to Christians hiding in the catacombs” using a candle-lit wreath to “light her way and leave her hands free to carry as much food as possible”. Her feast once coincided with the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year before calendar reforms, so her feast day has become a festival of light. Falling within the Advent season, St. Lucy’s Day is viewed as an event signaling the arrival of Christmastide, pointing to the arrival of the Light of Christ in the kalendar, on Christmas Day.
St. Lucy’s Day is celebrated most commonly in Scandinavia, with their long dark winters, where it is a major feast day, and in Italy, with each emphasizing a different aspect of the story. In Scandinavia, where Saint Lucy is called Sankta Lucia, she is represented as a woman in a white dress and red sash with a crown or wreath of candles on her head. In both Norway and Sweden, girls dressed as Lucy carry rolls and cookies in procession as songs are sung. Even boys take part in the procession as well, playing different roles associated with Christmas. It is said that to vividly celebrate St. Lucy’s Day will help one live the long winter days with enough light.