St Lucia

Of all the Swedish Christmas traditions that I like the most it is St Lucia. There is nothing more amazing that sitting in the dark hearing the sound of signing voices coming closer and then start to see the flicker of the light they are bringing. As the Lucia walks into the room with her maidens, starboys, tomtar and ginger bread men. Filing up in front of the audience and performing their concert of Christmas songs. And when tall the songs are sung the Lucia takes them all walking away with one last song. 

As a child my mother would always wake us up so we could watch the National Lucia on the telly with a breakfast of gingerbread, saffron buns and glögg. 

Now I have my girls doing little Lucia here at home and I do try and get them to watch the Lucia on utube. Last year my eldest was giving out so time is running out but I hope I get one more year of her agreeing to dress up as a Lucia for me.

St Lucia is a very recent tradition in Sweden  as it has only been celebrated since the 1890 and only really becoming popular in the 1920. However the Swedes did have had a celebration on the 13 December even back in the medivial Times. The calendar they used then placed the longest night of the year on the 13 December and people believed that this was a night where the super natural were in high action and very dangerous. There were belief that animals could talk this night aswell. And especially in the west of Sweden there was a lot of celebration to combat the supernatural. (I’m from the west of Sweden) Growing up we were told that Lucia brings the light and hope on the darkest and most dangerous night of the year. 

Now if you want to join me in celebrating Lucia this year here is a recipe of gingerbread that my mother gave me. It is especially good if you want to make your own gingerbread house. 

Gingerbread dough 250g granulated sugar 200 ml golden syrup 100gram butter 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon ginger 300 ml milk 1 teaspoon bread soda 1 kilogram plain flour Melt sugar, syrup, butter and spices in a pot over low heat. Pour in milk and leave to cook. Mix in bread soda and most of the flour. Cover with flour and leave in a cool place for 24h. Roll out to 3 mm thickness, cut out your shapes and cook for 15 min. This dough can float out during the cooking so keep the dough as cool as possible to prevent this. Keep a close eye on the gingerbread when they are cooking as they burn quickly. Leave to cool on a tray.