A Finish friend, with ties in Belgium, and with who I learn a lot about forest and nature based health practices in the last month, shared this video with me, and I like to share this video with you. In Norway, Sweden and Swedish-speaking regions of Finland, as songs are sung, girls dressed as Saint Lucy carry cookies and saffron buns in procession, which symbolizes bringing the Light of Christ into the world’s darkness.
What the person who made the video, wrote:
Lucia is a tradition in Sweden where we bring light to the darkness. Since many years back I have always gone out in the middle of the Lucia night to light up hundreds of candles in the forest, with the intention to spread light into the world. Maybe you have seen my earlier lucia-films here on my YouTube. But this year was special. Just as the other lucia-nights I prepared to get out and light up my candles. But this night, the forest surprised me 🙂
Some candlelight in my own personal life
I did not only found a mail from this Finnish friend, but also from someone who I got to know during the promotion of my first novel “Als Meubels Konden Spreken” (in English: If Furniture Could Talk). It is a first reaction of someone who was not my editor or proofreader, and also not friend or family. This was a person I feel I got to know because of serendipity. She enjoyed the story a lot and it also touched her, and even about some serendipities she experienced. I was not sure how people liked the story and actually feeling a bit insecure. I was telling a friend I was not sure if this book was a success, perhaps it was much too early to decide etc… but getting this first message during Lucia reminded me that I was at a good track, as this reader told me. I am grateful.
Watch out for trolls and evil spirits in the coming week
As I love trolls (maybe I should even go out more today to have more chance to meet them, but I do not think there are trolls in Japan?), please add me a story I found at wikipedia:
Lussinatta, the Lussi Night, was marked in Sweden 13 December. Then Lussi, a female being with evil traits, like a female demon or witch, was said to ride through the air with her followers, called Lussiferda. This itself might be an echo of the myth of the Wild Hunt, called Oskoreia in Scandinavia, found across Northern, Western and Central Europe.
Between Lussi Night and Yule, trolls and evil spirits, in some accounts also the spirits of the dead, were thought to be active outside. It was believed to be particularly dangerous to be out during Lussi Night. According to tradition, children who had done mischief had to take special care, since Lussi could come down through the chimney and take them away, and certain tasks of work in the preparation for Yule had to be finished, or else the Lussi would come to punish the household. The tradition of Lussevaka – to stay awake through the Lussinatt to guard oneself and the household against evil, has found a modern form through throwing parties until daybreak. Another company of spirits was said to come riding through the night around Yule itself, journeying through the air, over land and water.
There is little evidence that the legend itself derives from the folklore of northern Europe, but the similarities in the names (“Lussi” and “Lucia”), and the date of her festival, 13 December, suggest that two separate traditions may have been brought together in the modern-day celebrations in Scandinavia.
Talking about trolls, one of my best friends, actually, send me two days ago a message from an airport in Norway >>
Wanna read more about trolls:
- Trolls in a magical forest in Belgium
- Okinawa: from its longevity secrets to mischievous tree trolls
Stories from the Wood Wide Web 