St. Lucia (St.Lucy's) Day/Festival of Lights December 13

  Today is a day to celebrate St. Lucy's day, if you are not familiar perhaps the best story retold is this,

 "The story of Santa Lucia is of a young woman who marries a rich nobleman and is thrust into household management beyond her experience. She repeatedly errs on the side of generosity with household staff, local impoverished people, and ultimately, with her lending aid to a neighboring kingdom whose leader doesn’t have the resources to help his people in the face of drought and famine. In the absence of her husband, Lucia offers her husband’s reserves to assist the starving people of another kingdom. On her husband’s return, he discovers that the kindness of his young wife has turned an enemy kingdom into a deeply grateful friend. He is impressed and learns lessons of charity and humility from his open-hearted wife.
Archetypes like this, beyond religious connotations and outside geographical limitations, can be helpful in giving children strong illustrations of the power of love and the power of kindness—much needed qualities in our sometimes harsh times. Searching for these powerful images is the work of Waldorf teachers; to give the children entrusted to their care the substance they need to build these pictures of archetypal and transformative acts of generosity and kindness. " Source: https://www.waldorfpublications.org/blogs/book-news/waldorf-festivals-and-santa-lucia-st-lucys-day

It is important to note that, "St. Lucia Day was adopted from the Scandinavian holiday that has been celebrated in Sweden since the late 1700s, in which a young woman was selected to travel from farm to farm delivering baked goods before dawn. It commemorates Lucia of Syracuse, who according to legend, brought food and aid to those in need. She was said to wear a candlelit wreath on her head to light her way and leave her hands free to carry as much food as possible." Source: https://www.bellalunatoys.com/blogs/moon-child-blog-sarah-baldwin/celebrating-st-lucia-day

We found a lovely resource that we reference each year from an Etsy shop called PlayfullyPrimary: https://www.etsy.com/dk-en/shop/PlayfullyPrimary?listing_id=772315464 It is a cute colouring sheet to remind us of the important items that are connected with this event. Should she remove it from that shop you can also find her items at this excellent resource: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Playfully-Primary or https://smart.bio/playfullyprimary/ 

Today Barron and I enjoyed some nice Italian Herb and Cheese bread at Subway since we do not have a toaster and cannot use the oven where we rent, our intention for next St. Lucy will be to have such delights. We also wanted to treat this lovely gentleman who worked at the art store a lovely gift however I am struggling with my budget. I really hope to master this skill soon. Barron and I sang Christmas Carols walking home, enjoyed the beauty of sharing the evening with each other and appreciated the kind community members who decorated their homes and windows. Barron and I were out shopping and enjoying some treats that took longer than we planned. We created a little area celebration as well with some pretty tinsel, stars, and our little girl wreath wearing pictures we repurposed from a McDonalds Happy Meal box.

We found this neat shop on etsy that has a recipe for the special bread that we could not have: https://www.etsy.com/dk-en/listing/876317040/saint-lucia-and-saint-nicholas-waldorf?click_key=895da821d783de89f861ef914462f5e57ad68705%3A876317040&click_sum=b97626eb&ref=hp_opfy-4

                         Njut av varma lussekatter! (Enjoy warm bread)