Date: December 13, 2024
Time: 18.00 – 20.00
Venue: Stromma Headquarters
Keizersgracht 270
1016 EV, Amsterdam
Get ready for one of our most iconic events of the year – the traditional Lucia celebration! This year, Swe-Cham’s member copmany Stromma is hosting the event at their beautiful office in central Amsterdam. Experience the magic of Swedish tradition with the Young Professionals as we treat our members to an unforgettable evening filled with högtidskören, songs, candlelight, mulled wine, and gingerbread sponsored by Swe-Cham’s member company Inter IKEA Systems. Amidst the fantastic atmosphere and good spirits, there’s plenty of room for laughter and fun. Join us on December 13 for a taste of Sweden in the Netherlands and celebrate Lucia with us before we all head off for the holidays.
Would you be interested in hosting events or do you want to learn more about the Young Professionals? Reach out to our Young Professional Team at yp@swedishchamber.nl.
ABOUT THE SWEDISH LUCIA TRADITION
The annual candlelit Lucia procession on 13 December is perhaps one of the more exotic-looking Swedish customs. Girls and boys clad in white full-length gowns sing songs together.
The real candles are now sometimes replaced with battery-powered ones, but there is still a special atmosphere when the lights are dimmed and the sound of the children singing grows as they enter from an adjacent room.
Tradition has it that Lucia is to wear ‘light in her hair’, which means a crown of electric candles in a wreath on her head. Each of her handmaidens carries a candle, too. The star boys, dressed in white gowns like the handmaidens, carry stars on sticks and have tall paper cones on their heads.
Alongside Midsummer, the Lucia celebrations represent one of the foremost cultural traditions in Sweden. They clearly refer to life in the peasant communities of old: darkness and light, cold and warmth.
Lucia is an ancient mythical figure with an abiding role as a bearer of light in the dark Swedish winters.
The many Lucia songs all have the same theme:
The night treads heavily
around yards and dwellings
In places unreached by sun,
the shadows brood
Into our dark house she comes,
bearing lighted candles,
Saint Lucia, Saint Lucia.
All Swedes know the standard Lucia song by heart; everyone can sing it, in or out of tune. On the morning of Lucia Day, the radio plays some rather expert renderings by school choirs or the like.
The Lucia celebrations include gingerbread biscuits and sweet, saffron-flavoured buns (lussekatter) shaped like curled-up cats with raisin eyes. You eat them with glögg, Swedish mulled wine or coffee.
Source: Sweden.se
Photo: Swedish Chamber of Commerce
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