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
- St Lucy e-card
- An amusing animated singing St Lucy
Santa Lucia in Sweden
Saint Lucia in Sweden
Dec 13 is Saint Lucia day in Sweden, where each town's voted "Sankta Lucia" wears a crown of candles and, escorted by girls in white with a red sash and "star boys" wanders the town bringing light and song (and saffron buns!)
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Recipes - St Lucy food
- 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:
- Boel's Pepparkakor (Ginger Snaps)
- These ginger snaps are a traditional cookie for St. Lucy day in Sweden. Lots of sugar (naughty but nice!)
- Frico (Fried Cheese Wedges)
- The following is a traditional snack from Venice, Italy, and one that is especially associated with Santa Lucia Day. Given that most children everywhere love fried finger food.
- Leissi Katter - St. Lucy's Cats
- Leissi Katter are yellow Swedish buns shaped like cats for the feast of St. Lucy.
- Luciabullar (Luciakatter) - Lucy Cats; Lucia Buns; Lucia Cats
- Sweet saffron-flavored bread made either into small buns (luciabullar) or into luciakatter (Lucia or Lucy cats), the traditional curled shape, is the customary Lucia Day coffee fare.
Santa Lucia - or St Lucy
Some interesting sites about Santa Lucia
- 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
A Swedish Lucia in the Canary Isles
Lucia in Santa Lucia de Tirajana, GC
(2004-DVcam) A short documentary about the catholic celebration of Saint Lucia on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain. Directed by Björn Ulfsson & Terri Casella.
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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.
St Lucy on Flickr
By Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta, a follower of Raphael, this is a fresco in ...
A statue of St. Lucy. Her story can be found
Santa Lucia visits school
Santa Lucia is popular among children in some regions of North-Eastern Italy, na...
After celebrating Lucia at the French Embassy's residence in Ottawa.
Also known as St. Lucy of Syracuse, the patron saint of blindness, which explain...
In the St. Roch's Campo Santo cemetery chapel
'Saint Lucy'
St Lucy in Art
- 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 - Lorenzo Lotto
- "St. Lucy Before the Judge",
1532, panel, Pinacoteca Comunale, Jesi (Ancona) - 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
Mario Lanza sings Santa Lucia
Mario Lanza-Santa Lucia(very rare)
Mario Lanza sing Santa Lucia Luntana.What a performance!!! Mario...the king of tenor`s!
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