dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (12/13/84)
People in Sweden celebrate a holiday of light today. More about St. Lucy's Day -- after this. December 13 St. Lucy's Day Today is a very popular holiday for people in Sweden. Its St. Lucy's Day -- commemorating the patron saint of eyesight. On December 13 each year it's a Swedish custom for the oldest daughter of the house to dress in a long white gown and red sash and wear a wreath of four lighted candles on her head. Early in the morning she wakes up each member of her family to serve them a sweet bun. St. Lucy's Day used to be called the year's midnight. It comes only a week before the winter solstice -- the longest night of the year for the northern hemisphere of Earth. An old English rhyme goes "Lucy light, shortest day, longest night." The name Lucy itself comes from a latin word meaning "light". Around this time of the year light is a welcome commodity in countries in the northern hemisphere -- especially ones located very far north. The long winter nights around the solstice mark the darkest time of the year. But there is always the expectation that soon the days will start to grow longer again -- that light will return to the world. So holidays evolved using the idea of light as part of the celebration. Whether you use candles or strings of electric lights in your celebrations -- there's another display of lights you can enjoy in the winter sky. Look westward right after sunset for Venus, the brightest thing up there -- or eastward, toward many of the brightest stars visible from the northern hemisphere -- now rising up from the eastern horizon in early evening. Script by Diana Hadley. (c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin