Truth #1: We are only on the cusp of learning the meaning behind St. Lucia.
Truth #2: St. Lucia is ma' gurl!
Truth #2: St. Lucia is ma' gurl!
The Swedish celebration of St. Lucia's Day comes from the stories that were told by Monks who first brought Christianity to Sweden. From that point on, Sweden holds one of the biggest celebrations of St. Lucia's Day on December 13th every year.
St. Lucia was a young girl who believed in Christ and followed Him the point of martyrdom. She was killed for her faith in 304 AD. The most common story that has been passed down for generations is that St. Lucia would secretly carry food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who were forced into living underground in the catacombs. In order to keep her hands free to carry supplies and provisions, she would wear candles on her head. This had a two-fold function, lighting the way and maximizing her "carrying capacity."
This is also why her feast day is during the darkest time of year, close to the winter solstice. St. Lucia reminds us that there is always a little light in the darkness.
I recently read a quote from St. Lucia and it resonated with me. "...whatever you give away at death for the Lord's sake you give because you cannot take it with you. Give now to the true Savior, while you are healthy, whatever you intended to give away at your death." Those things that we hold so dear and close–that we hold right up until the end–why not give them away while you are still able to witness and enjoy the blessings those gifts are to those around you? In a culture that is so busy, busy, busy, one of the most precious gifts we have to give–specifically as parents–is our time. It is so easy to allow work, life, this-and-that-other-thing to eat up our time. As parents, there are many things that the two of us hold a united front on, and the "rage against busy" is something we fight for with paramount priority. We are purposeful about slowing down and just being together. As a family, we look forward to and protect those days when no one has to get up early for work or school. No one has to to be anywhere or do anything but be with each other. So that is precisely the way we chose to celebrate St. Lucia's Day. We gave each other one of our greatest gift we have, our time.
We participated in a few of the traditional Scandinavian/Swedish customs of the feast day. MAK played an integral part in our celebration. I cannot rate the heights of her excitement for today. Inviting her into my magical time of peace, I woke her up just before 6:00 am (for real... judge me, whatevs). I wasn't a foot into her room and she was bolt upright in bed, "Is it the early morning?" "Sure is." "Are you sure?" "Yep, I am sure." "Woah, that was a short sleep!"
I carried her downstairs and we rolled out dough and made "sweet rolls." Traditionally, these are saffron flavored rolls, but folks, lemme tell ya, saffron is like the world's most expensive spice! Hash-to-the-tagTRUTH! So, um NO... no saffron rolls here. Though I tried to talk her into letting me flavor the frosting with orange juice, "little Lucy" was having none of that! "You guys can just eat oranges. I'll just drink the juice."
Then she got all "Lucied up." We didn't have a long white gown, so a ruffled white-with-gold-polka-dot dress with a red sash (or Christmas ribbon) tied around her waist sufficed well. I found the smallest wreath I had and made candles out of popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners. She was adamant that the candles NOT be real! (Ben recently demonstrated the burning of hair as warning for them to be careful whilst blowing out candles)
Then, while it was still dark, she carried her prepared food upstairs where the four of us cuddled in Mom and Dad's bed, ate our sweet rolls, fruit, and coffee, and watched The Polar Express. It was the BEST, most magical morning in the HISTORY OF EVER! The rest of day was spent relishing the slow pace of togetherness. We played, we dressed up, we danced, we imagined, we talked, we listened, we ate, we rested... We Lucied!
Our prayer as parents is that through our gift of time, we will create space for those sweet moments with our kids to speak to and about the work of Christ in our lives and theirs. That we will have those times of darkness–hopefully a few of them together–so that when they are in those times of darkness alone, they will be reminded that the light will alway pierce the darkness.
So today we say "thank you" to Saint Lucia, bringer of light, for the reminder that even in our darkest of times the light will come. Hopefully, it will come from within.
This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
