December 13, 2002
Well, whadda'ya know? It's Friday the thirteenth! The best day of the year! *LOL* I was never that superstitious. As a kid perhaps, but not now. I learned a long time ago that this day often turned out better than others.

And on top of today we also celebrate Lucia! It's a swedish custom, a tradition that's lasted for over two hundred and thirty years. The first swedish detection is known from a western mansion in the year of 1764. Lucia is celebrated every year on the 13th of December.
(I remember an american movie...can't remember the title, though. But Dennis Leary and Kevin Spacey are in it. A Christmas kidnapping comedy. Spacey's wife has a thing for weird celebrations and at one point when they sit down to have Christmas dinner, they're all wearing Lucia crowns. They explain 'that's how they celebrate Christmas in Sweden'. I laughed my ass off 'til I cried and got a cramp. Uhm... no; we celebrate Lucia like that. But only one person gets to wear the crown, and that's the girl elected Lucia.)

Lucia, of course, is the saint from Sicily (Italy). She died a martyr in the year of 304 on that precise date. She is celebrated in the Roman Catolic church, but not in the way we celebrate her. Her remains can be found in the church of San Geremia, located in Venice.

Info, Lucia:
Lucia (ca 286-304) was born in Syracuse, Sicily. Her mother was a christian. As a young girl, Lucia vowed to live for God and to remain a maiden. She didn't tell anyone about her vow, not even her mother. When she came of marriageable age her mother chose a rich man for her to marry. (A heathen.) Well. She refused to marry him and told her mother to give away her dowry to the poor. The man felt insulted and reported her as a christian. Thus Lucia was arrested, thrown in prison and tortured. But she refused to give up her faith. To humiliate her, the governor sentenced her to work at the city brothel. When she was going to be transported there in a cart (so that people could scorn her and spit on her) the bullocks couldn't pull it; it was as if the cart had frosen. It stuck to the ground. They covered her in boiling oil, but she was not harmed. Frustration boiled as the oil among her tormenters. Finally they pierced her throat with a sword, after having put out her eyes. Despite the torture, she continued to pray and preach to the people present throughout her martyrdom. She died first after having received viaticum, the communion for the dying.
Lucia is often portrayed with a sword through her throat and with her eyes on a plate. She is the revered patron saint of the blind.

One of the Lucia legends explain why she carries a crown of candles on her head; she wanted to carry food to the prisoners. Prisons were mainly under ground and the path through the catacombs were dark. Since Lucia wanted to bring as much food for them as she could, she had to use both her hands. And so, she put candles on her head to see were she was going.

In Sweden the day of Lucia has been an important day since the last vikings. Rune staffs carry the evidence of Lussimäss, which is quite intriguing.

The swedish tradition:
In the 17th century, the Lucia tradition takes on a more official nature and in the 18th century even more so.

According to old tradition, the night of Lucia is the longest night of the year. This was completely true to the mid-16th century, when Sweden started to use the Gregorian calendar and the winter solstice was moved to December 21. Many of the customs and conceptions associated with the 'lusselångnatt' has lived on to and through our time; like, for example, the belief that both people and animals needed more food than usual since it would take time before new light and day came. There is a historical explanation to this custom; to eat and drink loads before it was light. People had to eat as much as possible (which could be up to seven (!) breakfasts on the morning of Lucia) before the Christmas fast, which happened around that time of the year in our catolic age (aka. the medeival ages).

All crops should by Lucia Day have been taken care of. The pig that was eaten on Christmas eve was butchered on Lucia night.

Lucia night was also a night of worry. Supernatural forces were in the works. To avoid unpleasant surprises, the farmers stayed up way past midnight. The most feared phenomenon was the 'lussefala' (lussefärden), a band of riders who rode through the heavens. Usually nothing could be seen, but a whining;howling noise, the sound of horse hoofs and dog barks could be clearly heard. It is also said that the animals could speak with a human tongue this night.

The song 'Natten går tunga fjät' that's always sung on the Lucia day celebration, is originally Italian and with no connection to our celebration. It's an old italian fisherman song, called 'Barcarola napolitana', and was sung by fishermen in a fisher village (in the area of the city of Neapel) that carried the saint's name. They are said to have burst into that particular song on their way home when they saw the city's church tower. The swedish compser Gunnar Wennerberg heard the song while in Italy and thought it could be used when Sweden was celebrating the saint. So he wrote it down, brought it home and asked the journalist and translator Sigrid Elmblad to give the song suitable lyrics.

During the mid-15th and mid-16th century the first Lucia (or 'the bride of light') appeared. There was also 'lussegubbar' (tr; lusse-men); youngsters walking from farm to farm. They were dressed in furcoats turned inside out. The Lucia was dressed in white and had a candle in her hand. She walked in front of the lusse men, between farms. They sang, got up to mischief, jested, and received food and drink.

The first bride of light had no crown of candles. That came later. The modern Lucia procession appeares in the mid-16th century, with the Lucia wearing a crown and having an escort of attendants and 'stjärngossar' (v. roughly tr. 'star boys').

Nowadays there are also gingerbread men and brownies/mini-santas that accompany the procession. This is common in the kids' processions.

Kids in church, celebrating Lucia. Of course, every girl wants to be Lucia.
So they have four, five of those. *s* Aren't they cute?



Lucia Day at another school, a high school.



A Lucia procession before entering main hall. Usually, the procession is about thirty-eighty participants stronger and marched in pairs. The Lucia is always in the front, with pairs of attendants and star boys behind her. The candles in the crown are real (see the high school pic), but in this pic only the hand-held candles are. That's very common when kids walk the procession. It's first in sixth or seventh grade that the live candles in the crown appear. Because kids will be kids and candles will have fun with anything flammable... for even younger kids the hand-held candles are electric, harmless ones as well, to avoid hair and clothes from catching fire. Believe me, I know about those things. In the sixth grade, a friend of mine got too close to her hair with the hand-held candle and it caught fire... Thankfully the procession would be in the school gym, and we were waiting for our clearance signal in the shower room... *g* Everything went well and she was careful in the future. To watch the procession is a beautiful experience and I love it. You have to be an early riser, though, since the Lucia processions take place early.

What's happening right now:
Whoa... lots of things. I've re-arranged the cellar! Yay, go me!

One of the magazines I'm working on (the one I'm the chief editor for) has come back from being printed, so now it's just that usual deal about mailing it out to the subscribers. Which will be very fun, as always. The layout is good, every image was linked and the front is... wow. One of the better issues we've done so far. Anyway. Lots to do there.

The other magazine, Valkyria, the swedish Xena fanclub newsletter, is doing fine and is being layouted when I've got some time to spare. It'll be a great first issue; it's planned to be released in January if everything goes as planned. It always takes some time to organize a new mag, getting all papers in order, mailing and calling for articles, etc. etc. The contents balance off each other in a good way and I'm most pleased to announce that this will be one of the better fan zines out there.

I've got a digital camera now. A crappy one, but hey; -it was free! So there might appear weird pics here and there in the future. Just thought I should warn ya.

The history studies? Well. Busy as hell there. Have a look below:

Books, notes and more notes. I love history, and when I sit down to do the research... well.
It's just so intriguing, interesting!

What's happening right now with the site:
I'm still looking for more ROC stuff to put up.

The Uber Library is coming along fine.

I'm still trying to fix updates. It's going slow though. Manily because of a very busy RL right now. Everything seems to be happening at once.

Quotes from s2 will be available soon.

New wallpapers are on their way.

I'm still doing the new calendars for 2003. The final selections have been made. When they are up, the 2002 calendar will be moved to 'Uber Walls' and 'Xena and Gabrielle' walls. That move should occur in later in December or in January.

Subopia will be updated soon. I've been frustrated with the fact that strictly subtextual sites close down and that it therefor becomes a royal pain in... to update the links all the time. The big sites tolerate all fans and are unnecessary to link to Subopia, which main content and point is subtext. A new look is most probably on it's way. The Alti and Najara parts are done and will be up when RL allows it. Revised links too. More pic evidence and quotes.

To sum it all up; -I hope to be making a big update sometime soon. I'm sorry for all delays and problems with the site for the moment. RL is my first priority and I have a very sick brother right now.


Uninteresting and boring stuff that's happened:
Well. I now have gained knowledge of the fact that some people actually read these ADITL-rambles! After having talked about my obsession with musicals, I've gotten a whole bunch of mails discussing my taste in music. Another question was how big that little Musical collection of mine really is. Here are some answers:

Music: I listen to music all the time. I love music, I feel through it and it's expressions are similar to my own regarding images. Fave bands and stuff listed below.
Iron Maiden -I love british metal.
Weeping Willows -swedish band, great sound, gloomy songs.
Helen Sjöholm -sung the role of Kristina in 'Kristina från Duvemåla'. She has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. She can sing with such feeling that your soul breaks into thousands of pieces, that falls in a glistening rain before your eyes. Truly remarkable woman and voice. She did a CD with 15th-, 16th- and 17th century songs that I listen to often.
Helloween -GREAT sound.
Tracy Chapman -talented, wonderful and superb lyrics.
Lacuna Coil -Italian band, with a slight gothic sound. Angsty.
Tiamat -swedish band, very talented. Goes into the metal or hard rock category.
Hammerfall -swedish band, great metal sound.
Theatre of Tragedy -Norweigans. The old albums are the best.
The Cure -because the lyrics speaks to the soul.
Enya -relaxation and harmony.
Musicals -anything creative with smart lyrics and beautiful music.
Japanese pop music/anime songs -It's official: Carola brainwashed me! SKU theme rules.

The size of my Musical collection: It's not that awfully big. I think it's pretty basic. But here it goes, anyway:

I told you. It's not that much of anything. It's different versions of the productions, autographs, tickets, posters, books, programmes, t-shirts. No biggie. Here I've just placed the t-shirts and sweaters under everything, piling it all up a bit.

This week's "To do"-list:
Write.
Try to get some sleep.
Work both jobs, remember to quit the least necessary.
Study pre-revolutionary french propaganda.
Evaluate 17th century protocol's from the american Civil War.
Do a gender study of writer themes in fanfic.
Mail the magazine to the subscribers.
PS calendar pics for the uber calendar.
Have a larp-organiser's meeting.
NR-meeting.
Board meeting.
Art meeting.
Economy meeting.
Con meeting.
Finish a painting.
Try to update Xenario.
Write.
...and write.