Santa Lucia Day - December 13

December 13 is the date that Scandinavians celebrate Santa Lucia (or Saint Lucy's Day).
It goes back to the tradition of a Christian martyr in Italy in the 4th century.  St Lucia is known as the saint of light.  The celebration takes place on the 13th of December as this was considered the shortest day of the year. At the time they were using the Julian calendar, so it was off by 8 days vs the Gregorian calendar.

So our Scandinavian friends on board, put on a traditional celebration.  One girl was chosen to wear the crown of candles (yes we had real flaming candles on board - note the low ceilings), followed by a process of men and women in costumes singing Santa Lucia.  (I think in Italian).  Some other songs were sung and there were some spoke verse about the feast.  We also shared a traditional Swedish roll.

St Lucia celebration in the mid ships lounge

Notice the very stylish cone shaped hats some of the men wore.  They are called star boys  (or stjärngossar in Swedish).  They carry stars and have gold stars on their cone hats.  There were also two small boys who distributed Swedish pastry (some kind of traditional Swedish bun) to the crew.  So no matter where you come from, festivals always include some kind of food for sharing.

Star Boys - perhaps a future rock band

Chuck