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A little bit of Sweden

The 14th annual Hotel Stilwell lighting ceremony, held Wednesday in the hotel lobby, featured "a little bit of Sweden."

Pittsburg High School students under the direction of Susan Laushman provided a program including traditional Christmas songs, along with three Swedish songs associated with St. Lucia.

Lura Patrick explained that St. Lucia's Day, Dec. 13, is the beginning of the Christmas season in Sweden.

"On the old Julian calendar, Dec. 13 was the winter solstice," she said. "In the 13th century the Gregorian calendar was adopted, and that moved the winter solstice to Dec. 21. However, traditions die hard in Sweden."

St. Lucia was a very early Christian saint who was martyred for her faith. "She got mixed in with some Viking lore," Patrick said.

In Sweden, the oldest daughter of a family would get up early on Dec. 13 and prepare coffee and saffron buns for her parents, Patrick said.

"She traditionally wears her white nightgown, which stands for purity, with a red sash, which represents the blood she shed," Patrick said. "The girl also wears a crown of candles. The name Lucia means light."

She said that there are old legends of a woman in a white robe, with candles in her hair, who fed starving peasants during some of Sweden's famines.

If there are other girls in the family, they wear white gowns with silver tinsel, while boys wear their white nightshirts and tall hats with stars on them. "They're called star boys," Patrick said.

Marissa Carlson portrayed Lucia, and her older brother, Chris Carlson, was a star boy. They carried trays of decorated gingerbread men.

Michael Doue served as master of ceremonies for the event, and Jerry Waltrip read the names of donors who had purchased lights for the Stilwell tree. Many of the lights were purchased in honor of loved ones.

Proceeds from the lights will be used for repairs on one of the historic hotel's decorative windows.

Following the ceremony, cookies and punch were served in the Timmons Ballroom. Decorations included a straw goat and a straw man.

"Many Swedish Christmas decorations are made from straw, because that's what they had to work with," Patrick said. "The Christmas goat brings the presents to the children. The straw man is called a 'tomte,' and you were supposed to leave something for them because there are both good and ornery tomte, and you didn't want them doing any mischief."

She said that, in Sweden, Christmas doesn't end until Jan. 13, which is St. Knut's Day.

"Swedish children get a whole month of Christmas," Patrick said. "At the end, they dance around the tree one more time, then take all of the goodies off it. It's called 'Christmas plundering'."

The Morning Sun, (www.morningsun.net) December 15, 2005