«StSanta Lucia is the shortest day there is», says a popular adage. But maybe it’s not that popular. Indeed, not everyone knowsperhaps, that tradition associates the shortest day of the year not on December 22, as we are used to believing the true winter solstice, but on December 13th, Saint Lucia.
Saint Lucia the shortest day there is
The explanation is found in change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendarwhich took place in 1582, when the days from 6 to 15 October were canceled 440 years ago to allow alignment with the new programming of the time, thus moving the one dedicated to Saint Lucia to about ten days before the winter solstice.
Even if today, therefore, December 13 is no longer considered the shortest day of the year, the legend of Saint Lucia remains. And the celebration, in honor of this girl from a noble Syracusan family, who paid with her life for refusing to marry a pagan during the persecutions of Diocletian, it spread mainly in northern Europe.
A tradition that remains
It is precisely in these countries that it assumed the value of hope of the light that will return with next spring to sanction the victory of light over darkness.
And the festivities, in fact, are organized with large bonfires, torchlit parades and ceremonies filled with lit candles. For northern Europe this day, falling in the Advent season, it is the event that marks the arrival of Christmas.
Where in Italy the feast of Santa Lucia is celebrated
In Italy the day of Santa Lucia has a particular value and it is celebrated in many areas of Veneto and Lombardy. Here it is said that on the night between the 12th and 13th the saint arrives on her donkey to distribute gifts of all kinds. In exchange sweets are offered to her and a tuft of hay for the donkey.
In the provinces of Brescia and Bergamoin the weeks preceding Saint Lucia, it is traditional to write a “letter” to the Saint, describing her conduct for the year and indicating her good intentions for the new one, then adding the requests for the gifts she would like to receive. In short, the typical children’s letter to Santa Claus.
Although today December 13 is no longer considered the shortest day of the year, the legend of Saint Lucia remains. (Getty Images)
In Syracuse we eat the cuccía
In Syracuse, however, in memory of his miracle that saved the city from famine, prodigiously causing ships loaded with grain to arrive in the port, but also in many other cities of Sicily, on December 13 you eat the cuccía, a dish made with cooked wheat.
But there is also another legend which is about love. If a person wants to know who his future partner will be, he will have to eat only vegetables without touching bread and any other baked goods. If so, his future will hold no secrets.
The cult of the saint in Northern Europe
Clearly, as we said, the cult of Lucia is particularly felt in countries where the alternation between hours of light and hours of darkness is a problem. In Scandinavia, for example, the martyr is represented as a woman in a white dress and red band and with a crown of candles on his head.
In Norway, Sweden and some regions of Finland the girls, dressed as Santa Lucia, carry biscuits and saffron sandwiches in processionas a metaphor for “bringing the light of Christianity through the darkness of the world”.
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