St. Lucia & Swedish Quilts: Around The Frame
Come December 13, St. Lucia Day will be celebrated across Sweden. The event symbolizes light in the midst of a dark winter.
According to the Visit Sweden website, “Lucia Day – also known as Saint Lucy’s Day – can be traced back to the 4th century. A Christian feast day, it commemorates the martyr Lucia of Syracuse, who, according to legend, brought food to Christians hiding in Roman catacombs, lighting her way with a candlelit wreath on her head.
13 December was the shortest day of the historic Julian calendar, and according to Swedish folklore, the long night was considered dangerous, with dark spirits out in force. Staying awake was paramount, and eating helped, another connection to the small feast associated with today’s Lucia celebration. Lucia made her first recorded appearance in a Swedish rural home in 1764, but the custom really established itself in the 1900s.
Today, heading the procession, Lucia is trailed by handmaidens (‘tärnor’), star boys (‘stjärngossar’), and gingerbread men (‘pepparkaksgubbar’). If children are participating in the procession they may choose to be dressed as Christmas elves (‘tomtenissar’). As for each group’s attire, Lucia’s defining feature is the lit-up wreath on the top of her head. Traditionally, real candles were used, but for safety reasons they’ve been replaced by battery-powered ones, and the same goes for those carried by the handmaidens, who typically wear glitter or a wreath (without candles) in their hair and glitter or a decorative red ribbon around the waist. Star boys wear all-white, just like Lucia and the handmaidens, with cone-like hats and star-adorned sticks. The lantern-carrying gingerbread men sport full gingerbread costumes, replete with white icing.
As well as being the bearer of light, Lucia’s offering of treats is just as key. She has been immortalized carrying a tray of fika by several iconic Swedish artists, such as Carl Larsson. The eats are gingerbread biscuits and an S-shaped saffron bun called “Lussekatt” – a treat almost as classic as the cinnamon bun.”
One may assume, for all her popularity, that St. Lucia is the patron saint of Sweden, but she is not. That honor goes to St. Bridget who has her own fascinating journey on her path to becoming a saint.
With all the cold winter nights the Scandinavian countries experience, you can imagine the thick quilts they made. Looking at their quilt patterns, many of them are geometric. I was pleasantly surprised to find the “Woven Hearts” pattern among them. My “Around The Frame” article published in February 2016, included a photo of a woven heart block. Now almost ten years later, I now know its Swedish origin!
So, as we await the coldest, darkest, nights of the waning year, let’s be mindful that light will once again return to warm the earth and our hearts.
Lois Levihn is the owner of Born Again Quilts where quilts find new homes and fabrics galore are used to restore them. If you have a textile story you’d like to share, contact her at 260-515-9446 or bornagainquilts@frontier.com.
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