St. Mary, from the garden of a church near the United Nations

"On December 13, St. Lucy's Day, the prettiest girl in the house impersonates Lucy.

She is dressed in white with a red sash and wears a wire crown on her head covered with

Bilberry twigs. (This is much like our Cranberry.) In this crown are fixed nine candles.

Lucy goes through the house very early Christmas, even at 3 or 4 o'clock, and awakens

all sleepers, giving each one a cup of coffee or a sweet drink. This story is related by Crippen

(Crippen, T.G., Christmas and Christmas Lore, Blackie and Son, Ltd., London, 1928,

and by Liddle, Rev. William, Peeps at Many Lands: Sweden.) Perhaps you would be

interested in knowing who St. Lucy was. Just as Lucy was about to be married, she

received her dowry, and instead of turning it over to her sweetheart, she gave it all to

the Christians because she admired their courage so much. When her fiance heard of this

he informed against her. She was condemned to be burned, but when the fire was around her,

she remained unharmed and did not die until thrust through with a sword."

-- from 1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies by Alfred Carl Hottes

'And sometimes trumpets from Zion ring out,

and tramping comes, and drumming--

'Thy kingdom comes,' so we cry; and they shout,

'It comes!' and still 'tis coming --

Far, far ahead, to win us,

Yet with us, nay within us;

Till all shall see

That King is he,

The Love from Galilee!'

from The Message, by Pr. E.G.B.

The Oxford Book of Carols, 1928

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