Thursday, December 13, 2012

Saint Lucia's Day


We began celebrating the Feast of Saint Lucy early on, but The Daughter was obstinate and never enjoyed taking her part in it -except for eating the sweet rolls, of course. I always ended up dressing in white and serving the coffee and sweet rolls, which is the place of the oldest daughter. She would have none of it. I never understood her objection. I finally gave our battery-powered candle head-piece to The Elder Son, because he really liked it while The Daughter steadfastly refused to wear it. Ah, well, such is life. Not everything you try will be a hit with the whole family. The breakfast sweet rolls were a hit with the whole family, and that was good enough for me.

We've tried several different sweet roll recipes through the years in addition to trying sweet rolls from various bakeries and pre-packaged ones. We like them all.

The picture at the top of the post is by Carl Larsson and is from 1908.

Oh, and I don't dress up in white anymore. The sweet rolls have always been center-stage, after all.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:12 AM

    I like sweet rolls...
    -- A Pal

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    1. it's hard to find fault with a sweet roll.

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  2. I thought Santa Lucia was a strictly Scandinavian thing. I don´t remember Lucia being celebrated when I was in Iowa as an exchange student.

    I was never Lucia myself, but both a "tärna" (a kind of Lucia bridesmaid) and a "stjärngosse" (starboy). Carl Larsson is Swedish of course, I say with pride. A national treasure! Do you have Scandinavian ancestry?

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    1. we have no scandanavian ancestry anywhere in our families.

      We adopted it as part of our advent celebration of increasing light in the season before christmas. it's such a great way to avoid a what-do-you-want-for-christmas focus.

      we've always enjoyed looking into other people's traditions. when i was little my mother subscribed to a christmas-around-the-world book series. we got a book describing christmas celebrations in other countries and an appropriately themed tree ornament in the mail every year. when my kids were little we re-discovered st. lucia and her advent feast and have remembered it every year.

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    2. How interesting! Actually, I have noticed how some of my friends and I have started being inspired by the eating traditions of Ramadan, simply because the food is now available in our local shops. And there are also recipes in magazines, along with facts about traditions from different Muslim countries. Growing up with several traditions (Swedish, Polish, Austrian) has always been enriching to me, and made me curious to try new things.

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