Santa Lucia - St Lucy - Queen of Lights
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The name Lucy or Lucia, from the latin root "lux", means light. St Lucy's Day, used to be celebrated at the winter solstice which marked the reappearance of the sun in the very north. She is the patron saint of the blind and those with eye problems.
This portrait is one of a series of Patron Saints I am doing. For more info go to my website PaulHelm.com
December 13th is Santa Lucia
St Lucy Day
Celebrated on December 13th Santa Lucia is an important prequel to Christmas in many parts of the world.Scandinavia Luciadagen Lucia Day, marks the beginning of Christmas in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Traditionally the eldest girl in the family wears a white dress with a red sash and a crown of lighted candles. At dawn she wakes the rest of the family with hot coffee and Lussekatter saffron buns.
Italy Santa Lucia is celebrated in many parts of Italy, especially in Sicily, Naples, Lombardy and the Veneto. In Verona there is a big Christmas market and presents are exchanged. In Sicily wheat food such as pasta and bread are not eaten but instead they eat cuccia made from boiled wheat berries, ricotta and sugar.
Croatia It is customary to sow the Christmas wheat on St Lucy's Day. Put the seeds in a small dish of soil in a warm room, keep watered. By Christmas Eve there should be fresh shoots about 8 inches tall.
Send a St Lucy e-card
A Santa Lucia e-card
- Santa Lucia e-card
- An amusing animated singing St Lucy e-card
Recipes - St Lucy food
Traditional recipes
- Santa Lucia's Braided Bread
- A festive recipe from Family Fun Magazine
- Cuccia
- In Italy, torchlight processions and bonfires mark her day, and bowls of a cooked wheat porridge known as cuccia is eaten because, during a famine, the people of Syracuse invoked St. Lucy, who interceded by sending a ship laden with grain (much as St. Joseph also did for the people of Sicily). Cuccia can be made so that it's savory or sweet. The wheat is most often simply soaked overnight, rinsed, simmered in water to cover by 2 inches for 3 hours or until tender, and then served with milk and sugar, much like oatmeal is. Or it can be a bit more elaborate:
Santa Lucia - or St Lucy
Some interesting sites about Santa Lucia
An Italian site and a Swedish site with lots of Santa Lucia related information and activities.
- Cara Santa Lucia
- A great Santa Lucia site, mostly in Italian but with an English navigation bar available. History, images, music, traditions in Italy and worldwide, letters, children's art gallery and much more. Enjoyable by all ages.
- Happy Santa Lucia Day
- A holiday collection of information about Santa Lucia and Christmas celebrations in Sweden and around the world.
- Wikipedia
- Saint Lucy in a nutshell
St Lucy Gifts on CafePress
Here are a few items available. Visit the shop for more.
A Swedish Lucia in the Canary Isles
For the last 40 years a Swedish Lucia has gone to Santa Lucia de Tirajana, a mountain vilage in Gran Canaria, for the feast of Santa Lucia. This video interestingly shows the very different ways the two cultures celebrate the event.
curated content from YouTube
Sheet Music, statues etc
- Santa Lucia Sheet Music
- Here is the sheet music for the popular Neapolitan song. Piano plus words in English and in Italian.
- Medals, statues, prayer cards etc
- A store with a large selection of medals, statues, prayer cards and other pious objects not only for St Lucy but for many other Christian saints.
Santa Lucia in Art
Depictions of St Lucy by great painters
- Perugino
- St. Lucy
1505, Oil on wood
Metropolitan Museum of Art, - Caravaggio
- The Burial of St Lucy
1608, Oil on canvas, 408 x 300 cm
Bellamo Museum, Syracuse - Domenico Veneziano
- The Martyrdom of St. Lucy. c. 1445-48. 26.5 x 29.5 cm. Predela panel of the Altarpiece of St. Lucy of the Magnolias. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany.
- Tiepolo
- The Last Communion of St. Lucy
1747-48, Oil on canvas
Santi Apostoli, Venice - Some more images
- Click on thumbnails. Includes Bellini,Rubens, Veronese,
Web Art
- The Saint Lucy Chronicles
- A secret love story:
An ageing Monet is losing his sight. He encounters the young St Lucy - patron saint of the blind.
Fascinating (once you master the navigation).
Featured on the Boston Cyberarts HyperArtSpace Gallery
by paulhelm
paulhelm
Hello I'm a printmaker/artist living and working in Wimbledon. I used to have a gallery/shop but they demolished it. So now I am rebuilding on the web -... more »
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