Advent Calendar, Dec. 13, Santa Lucia, Saint Of Light

A Home Video Recording

I watched over a dozen Santa Lucia videos, to pick the one I wanted to share here on Dec. 13. Then I recalled that I filmed one at the Lutheran Church in New York in 2013, the year my sister Bibi sang in the choir. So here it is, enjoy!

(My sister Bibi passes through at 1:30.)

In Sweden in my youth we would actually appear in our teacher’s bedrooms, yes, bedrooms, at dawn, when it was still dark, and sing for them, like this. Bearing a tray with coffee and “lussekatter,” a kind of modified challah bun.

Unless of course, that’s a false memory.

But no—I know it happened, at least once.

There are times when I get so homesick I certainly must be hallucinating; This song makes me more homesick than any sound I know.

The Lucia procession coming across a sparkling snow-covered field in the countryside, through the pitch dark, the beautiful lush silence of the thick snow, creating a kind of outdoor cathedral for the song to travel.

Here’s one more I like, from Juukosjaarvi, Lappland, home of the original Ice Hotel, the hotel that melts every spring and gets re-built every winter. That’s my favorite place I have ever been to.