St. Lucia Day~Our First!

Happy Feast of St. Lucia!

This was our first day really celebrating this feast day, beyond reading the story of this lovely saint.  We thought it was "high time" to honor St. Lucy since she picked our family this year through the Saint Generator.  We have been praying for her intercession all year and now we finally got to celebrate her feast day!

The girls had fun dressing up!  

We had these angel gowns in the closet that they use for our annual Nativity Posada on Christmas Eve.  For those who may not know, the white dress symbolizes St. Lucy's purity and the red sash is for her martyrdom.  In Swedish tradition, the oldest daughter usually wears the red sash but angel baby insisted on having one too!

We enjoyed learning more about St. Lucy and the Swedish tradition behind this celebration.  My Brother-in-law, married to one of my sisters, is from Sweden.  The kids enjoyed having the connection to Uncle Mark and his home country as we read the story.  The funny thing is that St. Lucy wasn't even from Sweden, she was from Sicily!  But as the Swedish story goes, it was through St. Lucy's intercession that many Swedish families (in the Southern region) were saved from a great famine.

It is part of Swedish celebrations that the oldest girl and (sister)s serve special cross-shaped sweet buns called Lussekatter, or "cat buns."  The Cross symbolizes that St. Lucy gave her life to Jesus and became a bride of Christ.  Hence, the oldest girl is also dressed as the "Lucia Bride, " in all of her purity.

We didn't plan quite well enough to do the cat buns, so we substituted with scones placed in the shape of a cross... And sprinkled with white powdered "purity" sugar:)

Oh and the "cat buns" also symbolized the wheat that St. Lucy brought to the Swedish people during the famine.

Boys of the family often wear cone-shaped hats, which are called star-boy hats.  Sadly, the boys in our family weren't interested in making the hats:(

Instead, the girls were thrilled to make St. Lucy wreaths for their heads!

Supplies:

Dollar Tree 15" wreaths

Red berries to symbolize the Swedish lingonberries

Red satin ribbon

*It was my "plan" to hot glue these candles to the top of the wreath, 

(Just for looks, and not to really light of course)*

Plan FAILED as candles were too heavy!

~Oh well, the girls wore pretty head wreaths with no candles~

It was said that St. Lucy visited Christians hiding in the catacombs.  In order to keep her hands free to carry the food she brought them, she wore candles on her head.  Her name, Lucia, also comes from the Latin word for "light."

I can't say enough about this book, "Lucia, Saint of Light."  It was a great resource and delightful story for St. Lucy rookies like us:)  

Other great sources:

Catholic Icing

Catholic Cuisine
Paper Dali
O Night Divine
"Saint Lucy, you did not hide your light under a basket, but let it shine for the whole world, for all the centuries to see.  We may not suffer torture in our lives the way you did, but we are still called to let the light of our Christianity illumine our daily lives.  Please help us to have the courage to bring our Christianity into our work, our recreation, our relationships, our conversation--every corner of our day. Amen"