December Songs and Stories, Part 20

Tonight we have another Scandinavian tale, this one from Sweden. It's Astrid Lindgren's retelling of Viktor Rydberg's classic Swedish poem, The Tomten. A tomten is quite a bit like the Danish nisse -- a guardian spirit, usually depicted as a red-capped elf, who lives on a farm and, if well-treated, will ensure that things go well there. The nisse, at least, is especially to be propitiated at Christmastime, when he gets his own bowl of the Christmas rice porridge. The Tomten doesn't have a lot of plot, but gives a lovely, peaceful, comforting feeling, so it's a fine bedtime story. There is nothing quite like snuggling up together to read a book like this, but if you happen to be alone, I found this video version on YouTube.

I mentioned before that the Swedish custom has been to have a Christmas worship service at dawn, so that the congregation travels to church in the dark. (This is depicted in Christmas in Noisy Village, see December 13 post). I used to work at a Lutheran church with Swedish roots and, in looking at some of the historical materials, I discovered that they had kept up this custom at least into the 1930s. An Internet search revealed only one service for sure this year: East Union Lutheran Church in Carver, MN will celebrate its 150th anniversary with a Julotta service at 7:00 am on Christmas morning.
In any case, this custom probably inspired the hymn Nar Juldags Morgon Glimmar (When Christmas Morn is Dawning). I have a recording by Janis Hardy and Garrison Keillor on the album Now It Is Christmas Again, but then I found this one -- Agnethe Faltskog of ABBA and her bandmate's wife (I think) Linda Ulvaeus, with some children. I'm pretty sure their Swedish is better than Garrison's, too. (Note, it doesn't say that's who's singing, but it is the same as the credited one, and I like the Tomten picture). God Jul!

December Stories and Songs, Part 13

Today is the Feast of Saint Lucy, or Sankta Luciadag in Sweden. We have never celebrated this day in the traditional way, because we are Danish, not Swedish. (Well, everyone else in the family is wearing the "Kiss Me, I'm Danish" button, I'm the one wearing the "Being Married to a Dane Builds Character" one). In case you don't know, it is the custom in Sweden for the eldest daughter to bring saffron buns and other pastries to the rest of the family in the morning, while wearing on her head a crown of lighted candles. Seriously!

Anyway, for this day I chose a Swedish story, one of our favorites, Christmas in Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren. Noisy Village, which appears in at least one other of Lindgren's books, is so-called because it's a small village with several children. The book takes us through the days leading up to a Swedish Christmas celebration, with baking, decoration-making, tree-cutting, outdoor sports, and the celebration itself, which includes the traditional early-morning service on Christmas Day.

The first time I heard the song Santa Lucia, it was a translation or re-writing of the Italian version, which was in my school songbook in 4th or 5th grade. My brother was recently reminiscing about how I 'tortured' him during one summer by singing this song over and over. It is a really pretty tune, and some Swede evidently thought so too. He brought it back to Sweden and wrote new words to sing on Sankta Luciadag, on the theme of darkness being overcome by light. Anne-Sofie von Otter, as befits a Swedish mezzo-soprano, sings it very beautifully on her CD Home for Christmas. But, I also found this lovely video, where you can see that they really, really do have lighted candles on their heads. I should add that many Swedish and Swedish-American communities have community/church celebrations of Luciadag.