A concert dedicated to the Swedish holiday Saint Lucia Day will be given at the National Philharmonic “Sergey Lunkevich” on December 10. The Embassy of Sweden in Moldova, which invites to the concert, said this event symbolizes the return of light during the dark winter, IPN reports.
Alongside Midsummer, the Lucia celebrations represent one of the foremost cultural traditions in Sweden, with their clear reference to life in the peasant communities of old: darkness and light, cold and warmth. Lucia is an ancient mythical figure with an abiding role as a bearer of light in the dark Swedish winters.
All Swedes know the standard Lucia song by heart, and everyone can sing it, in or out of tune. On the morning of Lucia Day, the radio plays some rather more expert renderings, by school choirs or the like. The Lucia celebrations also include ginger snaps and sweet, saffron-flavored buns (lussekatter) shaped like curled-up cats and with raisin eyes. They eat them with glögg (boiled wine) or coffee, says the Embassy’s press release.
The concert that will feature the Swedish choir Carl Gustaf’s Pop starts at 4pm.
