Kingdom of harmony

Today is the feast of Saint Lucy, a Sicilian martyr of the Diocletian persecutions in the Third Century. When you hear the term “Christian martyr” applied to a woman of the early years of the Church, it’s almost always a young woman whose only defense of her virginity against pagan lechers is death. And so it was for Lucy, also known as Lucia, who was burnt at the stake in Syracuse. Although she did not die until given Christian rites…

Ah, good times, eh?

Well, interestingly, Saint Lucy (whose name derives from the Latin lux, lucis; light) was taken up big time by the Nordics. Interesting, but not really surprising. For one thing, when you live in areas enshrouded by darkness for months at a time, anything relating to light is highly valued.

For another, it turns out that, in pre-Christian Scandinavia, 13 December was dedicated to Lussi, a kind of female demon, who led her followers around wreaking havoc on everyone. In the period between Lussi Night and Yule, trolls and evil spirits (possibly joined by spirits of the dead) roamed the land and committed all manner of mischief. Lussi could come down the chimney and take naughty children away.

So you can see why folks might want to wrap a saint rumored to have taken food and supplies to refugees hiding in caverns (wearing a wreath of candles on her head, so as to leave both arms free for schlepping stuff) around the Old Ones’ Lussi.

As an aside, driving back the winter darkness with lights, fire, prayers and making a lot of noise is a major theme of holiday celebrations. At least in the northern hemisphere. (People down under probably do it a lot around July-August, but their PR machine didn’t get the word out the way we up here did.) There’s more than a little blustery defiance in a lot of these activities, although it’s not framed that way for Saint Lucy, focused as it is on young girls.

(Although, I dunno—virgin sacrifice? I wonder about that because of the red sashes you see on these girls’ white robes.)

The traditional song for Saint Lucy is “Santa Lucia”, a traditional Neapolitan song, translated into Italian in the first stage of Italian unification, mid-nineteenth century. The lyrics are about light on the ocean, sung by a boatman and inviting Lucy to come join him on his boat . Scandinavians have adapted that theme of light for a particular celebration—you know, overlaid on Lussi.

Here's a choir in Sweden singing it. And that’s all I know about it.