This morning we celebrated the Swedish festival of Santa Lucia in school. The official date is the 13th December but as this is a Saturday and with lots of different things happening in school at the moment we decided to do it today!
The story of Santa Lucia was told to the Swedish Monks as they travelled across Europe. They heard about the persecution of the Christians in Rome and of a girl, called Lucia who visited the Christians, hiding in the Catacombs. She wore a crown of lights so that her hands were free to carry food and drink to them.
The Swedes were so taken with this story that they celebrate the festival of Santa Lucia each year with the oldest girl in a family getting up early and delivering coffee and biscuits to the other members of her family. This also occurs in offices and factories across Sweden.
This is one of our school traditions and we are very grateful to Mrs Hastings for keeping this celebration alive for us!