Lucia Celebration

Tomorrow, on the 13th of December the so-called Lucia celebrations will take place in many countries around Europe. Over the past years there were some Lucia celebrations on campus, which were mainly organized by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio, but now with corona and everyone leaving Porvoo, there will be a video, to celebrate Lucia, instead.

While preparing the Lucia celebration video, I asked Pia, my English teacher, who also teaches Swedish at Haaga-Helia, what´s behind these celebrations.

“Here I the Nordic countries this tradition came from Sweden. Lucia was a catholic saint, but Finns are mainly protestant, so here, it doesn´t have anything to do with religion”, she explains. “And basically, in Scandinavia it´s the Swedish speakers, so in Finland not the Finnish speakers, but the Swedish speakers celebrate it a

Typical Lucia buns lot.” On the 13th of December, “they

would sing the Lucia song and in Sweden they would eat the Lucia bun, which we were also supposed to have on campus. The Lucia buns have saffron in it. They are classical buns, weed buns with saffron and raisins.”, she describes typical things happening that day.

“And then we have the official Lucia. Finland would select its official Lucia and she would go to old people’s homes; there would be a big Lucia crowning in the cathedral on the 13th and then the children’s choir would be singing. But this year, because of corona, it will mainly happen virtually, so it is going to be dry compared to normal times.”, Pia says with regret in her voice.

About the origins Pia said, “In Scandinavia we used to celebrate fighting back the darkness, that´s why Lucia is a modern version. It´s a mix of somehow the Italian saint, but also very ancient traditions from Scandinavia. A bit of a mishmash in that way and not a religious celebration, even if it´s based on Saint Lucia, who was a Saint for the blind, because her eyes were actually cut out by roman soldiers.”

When my classmate Jared mentioned that it was unfair that he wasn´t allowed to be Lucia, Pia told us about the traditional appearance of Saint Lucia and what the Lucia looked like when she went to a Swedish school in Vantaa. “Lucia has this crown of light and the traditional Scandinavian Lucia has had blond, long hair, but when I went to high school, it was always the last high school year that organized the Lucia, and, in my year, we had a boy, young man, as Lucia. He was a particularly good Lucia. He didn´t make it into any kind of comedy with a wig or anything. He had his short hair and was a very slim kind of guy. Confident in a strong, natural way, but our principal, he got furious, he didn´t know that a young man would be the Lucia, This years´ Haaga-Helia Lucia

so he had invited over the mayor of Vantaa

and the mayor asked “Oh, isn´t Lucia supposed to be a young woman?” and the principal was so embarrassed, and he felt scandalized and he felt like we had destroyed the reputation of our high school by having a male Lucia. But actually, we were 30 years ahead in time. And it wasn´t done in a comedic way, but still, we almost got expelled and really shouted at by that principal. He was very traditional. He was the son of the priest. Very old-fashioned in his mind.”

After that, my roommate got thinking, if traditions can be changed; he asked me, “isn´t it part of traditions to keep them the way they have been for years?.”

So I started thinking, and I came to this conclusion: traditions need to be analysed. For instance, the Lucia tradition: the whole point is not whether Lucia is a girl or not. The essence is that Lucia is bringing light to the people and that can be done by a person of any gender.

Another example that came up, were Latvian folk dances, which are mostly about a boy and a girl, where the boy is going to war and the girl is crying for him. I would not change these dances, as they are based on facts how it was at that time, I however would suggest to, additionally, create new dances that represent different scenarios and even situations today.

-Lotte

At night, in any places that you are, stars up there always complain for not being able to outshine the light that radiates from within you.

- RezaRusandi -