Every Day Is Special: St. Lucia

Showing posts with label St. Lucia. Show all posts

December 13 - Santa Lucia Day

Posted on December 13, 2020

This is an update of my 12/13/2009 post:

This Christian feast day of St. Lucy is particularly associated with Scandinavian countries - Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.

In a traditional Swedish celebration of the day, there is a procession of women or girls, each carrying one candle. The procession is headed by one girl who wears a white dress with a red sash and a crown of candles or other lights on her head. The procession sings a special song.

A home celebration involves the oldest daughter wearing the Santa Lucia garb and crown; singing, she brings coffee and St. Lucia buns to her parents in the morning. These buns are made with saffron. Other goodies traditional to the day include a cake called St. Lucy's crown and gingerbread cookies.

St. Lucia buns, above.
St. Lucy's crown cake, below.

Boys sometimes participate in the holiday processions dressed as one of these:

gingerbread men,
tomte (mythical Scandinavian versions of

leprechauns or elves),

or star boys (inspired by Saint Stefanos).

In Sweden young people often spend the day in noisy partying, and university students often have formal dinners before leaving for their winter break.

Here is a website that has a nice video of girls singing the Lucia song.

Here is a recipe for saffron buns, and here is one for St. Lucia's crown cake.

Make a Swedish paper heart to decorate your home, hold treats, or decorate a Christmas tree.

This is a great site with information on Lucia crafts and recipes.

Here is a coloring page of a girls dressed as St. Lucia and a boy dressed as Star Boy.

Also on this date:

Republic Day in Malta

Artist Emily Carr's birthday

Anniversary of a prophecy

by Dickens

Saint Lucia Day in Scandinavian countries

(Original post)

Anniversary of the startup of production of Susan B. Anthony dollars

Anniversary of Tasman's “discovery” of New Zealand

Anniversary of the invention of Simon Beck's Snow Art

Anniversary of the last (so far) Moonwalk

November 22 - Celebrating Saint Cecilia in Saint Lucia!

Posted on November 22, 2017

The patron saint of music, Saint Cecilia, has a feast day today...So, to celebrate, let there be music!

Typically musical performances are held all over the island on November 22, to honor Saint Cecilia.

St. Lucia is a speck of land in the Caribbean that changed hands so much, between France and Britain, that some call the island the "Helen of the West Indies."

Helen is a reference to Helen of Troy, a figure in Greek mythology who was supposed to be so beautiful, she was wooed by many men - and fought over, and even kidnapped!

So, why was there so much competition over St. Lucia, the island? Is it, too, beautiful?

You be the judge:

The most common views of St. Lucia feature these two mountains, the Pitons, which are volcanic plugs or spires:

Also on this date:

Anniversary of a Canadian Revolutionary War?

Discovery of Robinson Crusoe Island

Astronaut Guy Bluford's birthday

Independence Day in Lebanon

Fantastic Flyers Day

More Fantastic Fliers: the Concorde

and the stealth bomber

John F. Kennedy Day

Anniversary of the eruption of Mount Saint Helens

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

August 30 – Rose Festival in St. Lucia

Posted on August 30, 2015

At this time of the year, the Caribbean island of St. Lucia has an unusual sort of rivalry: flower society versus flower society!

There are two rival societies, La Rose and Les Marguerite. The first, as you can imagine, celebrates the rose; the latter honors the daisy. Since the most commonly spoken language in St. Lucia is St. Lucian Creole (a blending of mostly French words with African grammar), I should tell you the name of the two societies in that language: La Woz is “The Rose,” and La Magwit is “The Marguerite Daisy.”

Each group has weekly meetings, and each has a female singer called a Chantwelle. And each Chantwelle has to compose Belairs, which are tunes sung in Creole, that praise her own society and teasingly “insults” the other!

Of course the Chantwelles perform their Belairs at those weekly meetings, in song and dance, and people play along with sax, violin, banjo, or other instruments. Generally all the flower society members join in singing the choruses. The society members play games at these meetings.

La Rose has its festival today – Les Marguerite hold one in October – and there are religious services, parades, feasting, a royal court, and of course a whole lot more singing and dancing.