Once everyone is dressed they are taken to a room that is lighted with many candles for a breakfast feast. Even the domestic animals are not forgotten on this day and are given extra portions of food. It was customary to hunt and fish on this feast day by torchlight. In Gotland Lucia went round the village proceeded by torchbearers. Everything was brilliantly illuminated. The lights indeed are the special mark for this festival, lighting the way into the Yule season.

What is the explanation for the importance of Lucia's day in Scandinavia? After all, St Lucy lived in Sicily 300 years after the birth of Christ.The legend goes that even though most of the world had not converted to Christianity and were still Pagans, Lucy's parents were both Christians and wealthy. Lucy's father died when she was a baby. Her mother raised Lucy to be a devout Christian and Lucy made a secret vow to dedicate her entire life to Christ.

A rich young man wanted to marry Lucy and her mother was adamant that she would do so. Lucy then told her mother of the earlier vow she made to Christ and her mother agreed she should keep her vow. Lucy was very happy but the rich young man was not. He wanted a way to punish Lucy so he told the Pagan leader of the country she was a Christian which was against the law. Soldiers came to take Lucy away but they were unable to move her so they tried to set her on fire. She would not burn. Finally, they were able to move her and placed her in prison where the conditions were so deplorable she died there.

What accounts for popular "Feast of Lights"? There is nothing in the legend of Lucia to account for it although her name does mean "light". It is possible that Latin-learned monks on missionary travels throughout Scandinavia used her name with special use of lights on certain feast days. This tradition may have spread to the common people. Another explanation of St Lucia's day being celebrated in Scandinavia is that according to the old ways Lucia's day was celebrated on the shortest day of the year on December 13

In certain Germanic countries such as Lower Austria, St Lucia's Eve is a time of special danger from evil spirits. A procession is made through each house to place incense and offer prayer. On this evening too girls are afraid to spin lest they find their distaff's twisted, the threads broken and the yarn tangled. At midnight girls practice the ceremony or cutting away the bark of a tree without detaching it, with a knife marks a cross on the inner side of the cut bark. Moistens it with water and carefully closes up the opening. On New Year's Day the cutting is opened and the future is foretold by the markings. In Denmark on Saint Lucia's Eve it is a time for seeing into the future. Maids pray: Sweet Saint Lucy, let me know: whose cloth I shall lay. whose bed I shall make, whose child I shall bear, whose darling shall I be,whose arms shall I sleep in.

The Sankta Lucia song is sung in Scandinavia during Sankta Lucia or Saint Lucy's Feast Day. The words to the song shown below are in German, Swedish and English. Play the video of a St. Lucia day festival in Sweden while you read the words in each of the languages. What a beautiful song, yes? Just for such festive day. Don't confused this with the Italian version. The songs in Sweden, Denmark and Norway "Santa Lucia" are much older and have been given various lyrics to accommodate it to the winter-light festival of Saint Lucy, at the darkest time of the year. The three most famous lyric versions in Swedish are "Luciasången, aka "Sankta Lucia," "ljusklara hägring" (Saint Lucy, bright illusion), "Natten går tunga fjät (The night walks with heavy steps)" and the 1970s "Kindergarten" version "Ute är mörkt och kallt (Outside it's dark and cold)".

If this does not make your eyes a bit watery and fill your heart with joy then you might never experience Yule to its fullest.