Good Yule, everyone! In preparation for Lucia’s Day this Friday, December 13th, I’ve recreated Kirsten’s holiday look from Kirsten’s Surprise. If you’re new around here, let me tell you more about my project! I’m recreating the cover looks from my favorite girlhood fictional character - American Girl Kirsten Larson, a Swedish immigrant to American in the mid 19th century. I’m researching each of her main outfits through a historical and cultural lens, doing my best to guess what the designers at Pleasant Company referenced when they developed her character. So far, I’ve recreated my historically accurate take on Meet Kirsten and Changes for Kirsten and posted those looks plus my background research here on my blog. Check out my inspiration board for Santka Lucia throughout history here.
I’m more focused on how the holiday tradition has evolved in Sweden than the Catholic origins, but if you’re into that, I encourage you to read up on it! In Sweden each town or school elects one little girl to play the part of Lucia and lead a procession. School is closed early that day so families can celebrate together (does that mean adults get out of work early too?) In some places there are bond fires to ward off evil spirits, which sounds pretty pagan to me! In Kirsten’s family, Saint Lucia’s Day is the start of their Christmas season.
From the Sweden.se website:
The first recorded appearance of a white-clad Lucia in Sweden was in a country house in 1764. The custom did not become universally popular in Swedish society until the 1900s, when schools and local associations in particular began promoting it. The old lussegubbar custom virtually disappeared with urban migration, and white-clad Lucias with their singing processions were considered a more acceptable, controlled form of celebration than the youthful carousals of the past. Stockholm proclaimed its first Lucia in 1927. The custom whereby Lucia serves coffee and buns (lussekatter) dates back to the 1880s.
Kirsten’s holiday outfit was worn on Saint Lucia’s Day, a solstice celebration on the darkest day of the year (when the Feast of Saint Lucia became a popular holiday in Scandinavian countries, the Julian calendar was still in use, which is why Lucia’s Day falls on the old winter solstice, December 13th, and not the modern one using the Gregorian calendar, on December 21st). The eldest daughter in each family would go room to room in the early morning hours, wearing a white gown, red sash and lit crown with baked treats and hot coffee saying “Saint Lucia invites you to breakfast!” When I was a young girl, my own dad helped me make Swedish rice porridge for breakfast (using the first Pleasant Company cookbook!) and I’m so excited to make it again this week for our little family celebration!
