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Santa Lucia–The Lightbringer

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We arrived at Salem Lutheran Church before 7:00 am and took our seats in the candlelit sanctuary.  The pews were filled with smiling parishioners, many of whom wore colorful Nordic print sweaters to chase away the extreme cold and to proclaim their Scandinavian pride.  My 100% Scandinavian genes were feeling a little envious.  After the handbell prelude, we listened while the first verse of the processional song ‘Sankta Lucia’ was sung in Swedish, then joined in for the English version: Night’s heavy footprints lie / ‘Round farm and toil / Spirits shall haunt the world / Shadows on soil / In our dark house at night / Rising with candles bright / Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia // Night’s full of black and gloom / Now hear her swing / Through all our darkened rooms / On her sweet wings / At our door clad in white / Wearing a crown of light / Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy) was a young Christian from Syracuse, Sicily who refused to marry her pagan husband and was martyred in 304 A.D.  Many legends surround Santa Lucia—that she carried baskets of food to persecuted Christians in the catacombs with a wreath of candles on her head to light the way, and that she appeared after her death at the bow of a ship carrying food to the starving people of Varmland, Sweden.  She was clothed in white with a crown of light circling her head.  Her feast day is December 13th which coincided with the Winter Solstice during the Julian calendar.  Santa Lucia’s Day, the 13th, marks the beginning of the Christmas season in Sweden.

Sweden and at least parts of Finland, Norway, and Denmark celebrate Lucia as the symbol of light and hope during the darkest time of the year.  In villages and households, a chosen Santa Lucia carries coffee and pastries—often lussekatter, sweet saffron buns—to villagers and family members.  Denmark’s first Lucia procession was held during Nazi occupation of the mid-1940’s to show peaceful resistance and offer a reminder of hope.   **

At Salem Lutheran Church, Tomtars and Star Boys, Saint Knut, and Lucia with her Tarnors or handmaidens processed down the aisle with candles and bells and sat at the front of the church during the service.  As we sang and prayed, daylight gradually revealed the amazing stained glass window above the alter.  After the service, all were invited to the Great Hall for Scandinavian pastries, coffee, and lingonberry glogg!

 

Today, on this 21st day of December, we celebrate the Winter Solstice, the first Day of Winter.  We have reached the shortest day of the year, the longest night.  Santa Lucia is celebrated in Sweden and other northern countries as the Lightbringer of faith, hope, and good things to come.  Her light shines through the darkness as she brings food for the hungry and needy.  She heralds in the Christmas season.  On this longest night, I wish for all of us the Light of generosity and compassion, the Light of warm housing and abundant food, the Light of forgiveness and peace, and most of all the Light of Love.  May we all be bearers of Light.  God Jul!*

 

*Happy/Merry Christmas in Swedish

**Santa Lucia image from Google images

Happy Winter Solstice!

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Iron wheel in snow

This is an abbreviated excerpt of “A Celebration of Winter Solstice” fromThe Circle of Life by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr.

“There is a tendency to want to hurry from autumn to spring, to avoid the long dark days that winter brings. Many people do not like constant days bereft of light and months filled with colder temperatures. They struggle with the bleakness of land and the emptiness of trees. Their eyes and hearts seek color. Their spirits tire of tasting the endless gray skies. There is great rejoicing in the thought that light and warmth will soon be filling more and more of each new day.

“But winter darkness has a positive side to it. As we gather to celebrate the first turn from winter to spring, we are invited to recognize and honor the beauty in the often unwanted season of winter. Let us invite our hearts to be glad for the courage winter proclaims. Let us be grateful for the wisdom winter brings in teaching us about the need for withdrawal as an essential part of renewal. Let us also encourage our spirits as Earth prepares to come forth from this time of withdrawal into a season filled with light.

“The winter solstice celebrates the return of hope to our land as our planet experiences the first slow turn toward greater daylight. Soon we will welcome the return of the sun and the coming of springtime. As we do so, let us remember and embrace the positive, enriching aspects of winter’s darkness. Pause now to sit in silence in the darkness of this space. Let this space be a safe enclosure of creative gestation for you.”

 

Celebrate the Light

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Sunset--December 1

Winter is said to be bleak–and in many ways it is–but it gives us a gift that comes only when the sun is low in the southwestern sky and when the leaves are gone from the trees.  The gift of beautiful sunsets!

Sunset-December 2

In the months of shortening days until the Winter Solstice and those afterwards that are frigid, yet lengthening, we can look out our picture window any uncloudy evening to see a work of art on the canvas sky.

Sunset-December 4

“Look at that sunset!” has been exclaimed so many times in our household (mostly by me) that my son has rebutted with his own proclamation that “Sunsets are overrated!”

Sunset-December 5

The light and colors of the sunset are reflected in the patch of river water or ice we can see from our house in the leafless months.

Sunset-December 6

The first week of December was brilliant and cold, producing the sunsets above.  Then we became engulfed in clouds as the inversion took over our skies.  One or two days of fleeting sunlight late this week then gave way to the bank of clouds that rolled in from the west.

Sunset-December 18

 

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, tomorrow is the shortest day and the longest night of the year.  We are acutely aware of the darkness–even in our modern, lighted world.  As our part of the earth is tilted away from the sun, we experience that darkness as winter.  Winter may be bleak relative to the growth, color, and abundance of the other seasons, but it also offers us gifts that are unique to this time of year–if we are ready to receive them.

Sunsets of color against the backdrop of snow and ice make us stop for a moment, take a breath, and appreciate that moment of beauty.  Anything that touches and feeds our soul cannot be overrated.  The darkness of Winter gives us time to turn our thoughts inward.  The work of Winter, unlike the physical work of the other seasons, is the work of our emotions and soul.  We can accept the darkness inside ourselves, live with it, and learn from it.  Then comes that moment, that day in time, when the darkness slowly starts to recede as we reach out and celebrate the Light.  Happy Winter Solstice!