St. Lucia Day

Happy St. Lucia Day, everyone!

I learned a lot today while accompanying Elise to school for her St. Lucia Day celebration. She has barely been able to contain her excitement about surprising her class this morning for the special event. Her outfit has been laid out for an entire week (since her teacher asked her to participate in the surprise), and she has been reading her book with all of the details so that she could present it to her class.
As Christmas approaches they have been learning about Christmas in other countries, and her teacher asked her to help her teach the class about Christmas in Sweden this morning.



Because, you see, in Sweden, in the oldest girl in the family has a special job on December 13th. Since it is the shortest day in Sweden, St. Lucia (light) wakes up early to bring light (hence the candles on her crown) and special treats to the leaders of the family. She wears a white dress with a red sash, and a crown with candles. Since Elise is the oldest girl in her class (or school family), she had the honor of being St. Lucia today, and was able to bring treats to the leaders (administrators) and extended family (two other classes they have recess with when it has to be indoors). Fresh Market kindly donated all of the treats to Ms. Farris for today, so there were plenty to pass out...



Waiting to surprise her class as they come in off of the morning playground...(this antique white dress that Emmy and Pop had given her years ago was perfect for St. Lucia..it really resembled many of the dresses we saw when researching!)



Mrs. Thomas (the principal) had to leave for a meeting, so she came down right away to see what was going on in Ms. Farris' room. Elise handed her her special treat and told her about St. Lucia Day...

By chance, we happened to have this Swedish Christmas goat (I thought it was a reindeer when I bought it at Ikea, although Elise showed me I was wrong) made of hay, which is huge in Sweden. So, Elise also brought it with her today so that she could tell her class about it. The goats are used to guard the Christmas trees from evil, and, like many of the Swedish Christmas decor, are made of hay to remind them of how Jesus was born in a manger covered with hay.

Then Elise read to the class from the Christmas in Sweden book Ms. Farris checked out for her from the library...the boys were tickled to learn that boys in Sweden often dress as "star boys" on St. Lucia's day, with tall pointy hats covered with stars- and sometimes they are mischievous! Perfect for her class! :)

Vice Principal, Dr. Meyer, stopped by for a visit as well....

The Elise lead the class to the office to bring treats to the rest of the administration...

Mrs. Julie, Ms. Bettina, and Mrs. Babette....

And then to Dr. Lowery's and Ms. Ross' rooms....in these rooms some of the other children in her class were able to participate by sharing what they had learned that morning about Christmas in Sweden...

Then back to Ms. Farris' class to light the advent wreath...

And, since I was there and ok with it, she even lit "St. Lucia's" wreath so that the girls and boys could see what it would look like....

It was an amazing morning and I am so thankful that her teacher invited me to come along and take pictures. I know this is something Elise is going to be talking about for a long time...