Globetrotter
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AIS Lights Up the Winter
Natten går tunga fjät The choir starts to sing, and the Santa Lucia procession begins. Wavering candles crown 'Lucia's' head, their flames dancing in time with her steps. Sanvita, a kindergartener, sits on my lap. She tells me that this is her first year at AIS, and she wants to know why the whole school is in the auditorium today. I don't quite know how to respond. After some later research, I find that we're in the auditorium to celebrate the Scandinavian Fesitval of Lights, or the feast day of St. Lucia. In Sweden, the festival is traditionally celebrated on December 13. In the past, in the early hours of the morning of December 13, a young woman dressed in a white gown and wearing a red sash and a crown of twigs and blazing candles, goes from one farm to the next carrying a torch to light her way, bringing baked goods, stopping to visit at each house and returning home by break of day. Lucia symbolizes light and growth for human and beast as she emerges out of the darkness. Her name means "light", and she is known as the patron saint of the "light" of the body, the eyes. Before the Reformation, Saint Lucy's Day was one of unusual celebration and festivity because, for the people of Sweden and Norway, she was the great "light saint" who turned the tides of their long winter and brought the light of the day to renewed victory. Santa Lucia symoblizes hope and promise throughout the bleak winter, and is not so much a religious holiday as a cultural one. While the procession stands on the stage of the auditorium, the choir finishes Winter Wonderland and begins to sing the traditional Santa Lucia song once more. The procession exits, wax now dripping off of Lucia's crown, and the auditorium stands to exit. Santiva clambers off of my lap, smiling and mumbling about how she thought that "the candle girl" was very pretty. She looks blissful, light, and, well, hopeful. Natten går tunga fjät |
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