Santa Lucia, la tua luce sta lucchio
Con la notte d'inverno piu scura,
dona di conforto.
Galleggiante di sogni sui sogni stasera,
Viene allora la luce di mattina,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia
Santa Lucia, thy light is glowing
Through darkest winter night,
comfort bestowing.
Dreams float on dreams tonight,
Comes then the morning light,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.
Lucia, Lucina, Lucy, lucchio, luce, lucente come from the Latin root lux, meaning "light". In the darkness of deep winter, it's no wonder that our ancestors, without electricity, worshipped the sun and, feeling anxious in the diminishing daylight, eagerly sought the return of solar blessings, luring it back with festivity, music and dance. Yultide festivals of light surviving into modern times include Hanukkah, Christmas, a Shinto rite honouring sun goddess Amaterasu and a similar Cherokee festival in honour of a goddess who, like Amaterasu, withdrew into the shadows until charmed back out by the magic of song and dance. The Roman festival Lux Mundi ("light of the world") on December 10, came to be represented by Libertas, Lady Liberty, whose torch lights the way through the darkness.
And then there's the feast day of St. Lucy, named for light itself, on December 13, considered by some to be the 1st of the 12 days of Christmas. According to others, they span either Winter Solstice through New Years, or Christmas through Epiphany, take your pick. In the case of this feast on December 13, celebrants are more likely to call it the "13 nights of Christmas" and in Slovakia, a most wickedly bewitching time it is.* Radio Prague proclaims that "witches come out to play on St. Lucy's Day" and their power is at it's height during the two weeks preceding Christmas. And I'm not talking good witches here. On the evening of her feast day, fires are lit, and incense thrown into the flames. To protect them from witchcraft, disease, and danger, people smudge themselves in the smoke. Slovakians were (are?) most frightened of the "witch Lucy", and according to ethnologist Katarina Nadaska, "They locked their stables unlike for the rest of the year...and used to hang a garlic wreath on the door of the stable...It was dangerous to leave the door unlocked. The witches could simply come to take straw or some bits and pieces out of the stable and use them for black magic."
On a lighter note, the period of 12 days gives rise to love magic too. If you can't decide between 12 lovers, and assuming you only want one, put their names on separate pieces of paper and tape them, face down, tearing one off each day. The name that is left on Christmas Eve will be the One. Folklore hints at strange occurrences happening at midnight on St. Lucy's Eve. You may wake to the sound of cattle speaking and/or see running water. In Norway, Lucy is considered a wanton woman (Loose Lucy?), maybe even a goblin, and is one of the many leaders of the Wild Hunt.
Elsewhere in Europe, Lucy is venerated and celebrated, especially in Scandinavia and Italy. The young Lucia was herself Sicilian, living in the city of Syracuse, of which she became the patron saint. She lived during a time when the Christians were persecuted for being "pagan," i.e. in conflict with the official state religion (in other words, before Constantine), and the story goes that she carried food to the Christians hiding in dark underground tunnels, lighting the way she wore a wreath of candles on her head. Like most virgin saints, she shunned marriage, I mean Shunned with a capital S, to the point that when a suitor admired her beautiful eyes, she cut them out and sent them to him! Other sources say that he had her eyes put out. Because of this, she is the patron saint of eyesight and blindness, and is depicted in art carrying her eyes on a dish.
Similar to the icons of St. Lucy and Liberty-Lux Mundi, the Sabine goddess Lucina was often pictured holding a lamp and a plate of cakes that resembles eyeballs. She was absorbed into Juno Lucina, goddess of childbirth, and her epithet is "she who brings children into light". It is she who opens new babies eyes to see the light for the very first time, and, by extension, is invoked when one is feeling jaded, helping us to see the world with "new eyes". The Roman feria Juno Lucina is March 1, but because of the similarity of names, merged later with the old Swedish feast of Lucia into what is now the Christian feast of St. Lucy, still celebrated throughout Europe (except perhaps Slovakia), but especially in Scandinavia and Italy.
In Italy, torchlight processions and bonfires celebrate the light bringer, and sweets called "St. Lucy's eyes" are eaten. This is often the day my family and I make confections of peanut butter spheres dipped partially in chocolate, called buckeys or chestnuts in recipe files, but a friend who tasted them some years ago called them "eyeballs" and the name stuck. Italians also eat bowls of cooked wheat porridge called Cuccia** in remembrance the time the people of Syracuse invoked the saint's deliverance from a famine, and immediately a ship loaded with grain sailed into the harbour.
Nowhere is the celebration of Lucy so fervant than in the Nordic lands where the shortness of daylight hours is most drastic. The oldest daughter in the family will wake up before dawn on St. Lucy's day and dress in a white gown with a red sash, on her head a wreath of greens and candles. She fixes a breakfast of x and/or s-shaped Lussekatter cookies ("Lucy cats")**, saffron buns, and glogg, to serve this to the rest of the family as breakfast in bed. If she has younger brothers, they dress as "star boys" in white gowns with star spangled cone hats, and carry star tipped wands; if younger sisters, they wear white and put glitter in their hair. Later on in the day, Lucy and her siblings process in their festive gear around town, sometimes led by "St. Stephen" on horseback (the feast of Stephen is Dec 26).
* School of the Seasons has an interesting take on the 12 Days, see Time Out of Time She also has more about St. Lucy’s Day
The image art is Domenico Beccafumi, Saint Lucy, 1521, a High Renaissance oil on wood recasting of a Gothic icon
Tarot cards: IX Hermit (holding a lamp), 6 wands
