Like the legends of Santa Claus, this too seems very innocent, and even
benevolent. Instead of toys, the young girl brings cakes with her to give to every
house she stops at.
ìThe children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and
the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of
heaven.î Jeremiah 7:18a
Lucia, a form of the word Lucifer, symbolizes light and growth for human and
beast as she emerges out of the pre-dawn darkness. Because her name means
light, she became the great patron Catholic Saint for the light of the body - the
eyes.
For the people of Sweden and Norway, she is the great light saint who turned
the tides of their long winter and brought the light of the day to renewed victory.
Another Scandinavian custom is for children on the eve of December 13, to write
the word Lussi on doors, fences, and walls. In ancient times the purpose of this
practice was to announce to the demons of winter that their reign was broken on
Saint Luciaís Day, that the sun would return again and the days become longer.
Her original feast day happened to fall on the shortest day of the year, linking it
with the Yule and Winter Solstice festivals of pre-Christian times. Many of the
ancient light and fire customs of the Yuletide became associated with her day.