Glad Lussinatt

Yule is a magical time of year, and when we look to the various holiday traditions from Krampus and Saint Nicholas, to the celebration of Saint Lucia Night, we see the pre-Christian customs as remnants scattered across all of December. But I wanted to acknowledge Lussi (also known as Lusse, Lucy), as her feast day approaches. Unfortunately most information about her doesn’t appear in English, but primarily in folk traditions and their accounts from Norway and Sweden (and therefore, in those languages). Usually what we find in English relates more to the Christianized syncretization, and the church’s “Saint Lucia” story.

Some scholars have posited that the Christianized Saint Lucia and the customs tied to her celebration in modern times is most likely a syncretization of pre-Christian customs of Lussi (from areas of Norway and Sweden, and possibly other areas of influence from the Germanic tribes) with the Italian Christian martyr Saint Lucia. Folk traditions describe Lussi having a Wild-Hunt (oskorei) like horde called the Lussiferda.

Lussebrud from Jösse district, in the Värmland region of Sweden.  
The figure is about 150 cm high (4.9 feet) and was used before 1930. The Nordic Museum.

In some regions of Sweden there would be the lussebrud (the Light Bride). Sometimes the lussebrud was merely a female dressed for the occasion, but sometimes this may be a male or female dressed up in straw as a bride, or the lussebrud may be a straw doll. The lussebrud may also be accompanied by the lussebock (Light buck). This is similar to other Wild Hunt figures in the Northern Tradition: Perchta & the Perchten, Saint Nicholas (possibly influenced from Odinic origins) and the Krampus. Like other Wild Hunt figures, she has ties to the reward/punishment folk traditions. Lussi or her horde would come down chimneys and steal misbehaving children. Lussi might destroy chimneys if certain tasks weren’t done before her night: spinning of thread or yarn was to be finished, cleaning finished, slaughtering for the year to get through the winter, and other such tasks. Symbolically, these were all tasks you’d need to help you survive a winter. If people hadn’t finished all their work, they feared Lussi would smash their chimneys.

The celebration of Lussi’s Night was meant to be culturally connected with the winter solstice, and that is what we see with the older Julian calendar. We can tell this from the clue we have of the celebration’s name from parts of Norway, where it was called ‘Lussia Langnatte’ (or Lussi’s Long Night). In Sweden it’s usually referred more simply as Lussinatta (Lussi’s Night). When a new calendar methodology was adopted, the Gregorian Calendar, we ended up with her celebration on December 13, and the astronomical solstice falling about a week later.

Today in Sweden, Lussinatt falls on the evening of December 12. There exists a multiplicity of folk traditions that can mark the celebrations. Some are secular, some are tied to the church. Previously as we near the modern era, you would have lussegubbar, or youth dressed up like Lussi and go carousing door to door in the countryside singing, in a tradition that seems reminiscent of caroling and wassailing traditions we see elsewhere. Today the songs are still sung especially the Sankta Lucia (which is believed to originate from an Italian folk song, rebranded with Swedish lyrics), but the processions are a bit less wild as they tend to wind their way through town from schools and churches, to nursing homes and hospitals. Today many towns will have an elected (or chosen by random lottery) Lucia who leads the procession (Luciatåg) wearing a candled wreath (known as a luciakrona, which was traditionally worn as a crown decorated with evergreen lingonberry branches), accompanied most usually by young girls as her handmaidens (tärnor) in evergreen wreath crowns and more recently young boys as star boys (stjärngossar) in pointed white hats holding gold stars. Everyone is all dressed in white holding candles. Sometimes they are also accompanied by gingerbread men (pepparkaksgubbar), or in some places they might dress as the local elves.

Traditionally the crowns were adorned with real candles and open flames. But in a move towards safety most places have shifted to using electric lighted versions of the candled wreath instead. In addition to the crowns there are also more candle-ladened items associated with the observance called Ljuskrona (ceiling mounted chandelier) or Ljustaken (table-top candelabara) usually, though some other names include: julstaken, julkrona, or jul tradet. Sometimes they were adorned with handcut and fringed paper decorations, different patterns were known to be prevalent in specific communities in Sweden. These Ljustaken are usually hidden until December 13, then brought out and decorated. It’s quite common for this to be a family activity. They would be part of the decorations in the home throughout the entirety of the yuletide until January 13, when they are put away again until next December.

The practice of Lussevaka – to stay awake through Lussinatt (the evening of December 12) to guard oneself and the household against evil, not only fits symbolically well with a solstice celebration of longest night, but also brings to mind the description from Bede that Mother’s Night was observed for the entire night as well. Today, it’s not uncommon for there to be parties as part of the lussevaka observance, sometimes with people actually cooking and making the lussekatter rolls they’d eat in the morning. People may use the time to work on handcrafted projects. Some will drink and be merry with their peers. There are old references to folk traditions of writing Lussi’s name on doors and fences or in other areas of having weapons at hand (or hanging them up) while you observed the vigil. In some areas, you were meant to feast to keep you strong through the terrors of the night. It was a night where animals were said in some areas to be able to speak, telling Lussi what evil they may have witnessed. Livestock in some areas were given a treat of extra food, or a lussebit, meant to help them survive the evil that may lurk during the long night. There’s some folk customs that include women invoking Lussi for oracles on their future husbands.

“In Denmark, too, St. Lucia’s Eve is a time for seeing the future. Here is a prayer of Danish maids: “Sweet St. Lucy let me know: whose cloth I shall lay, whose bed I shall make, whose child I shall bear, whose darling I shall be, whose arms I shall sleep in.”

-Clement Miles (referencing Jacob Grimm)

This parallels somewhat to traditions we see in Lower Austria.

St. Lucia’s Eve is a time when special dbu from witchcraft is feared and must be averted by prayer amid incense. A procession is made through each house to cense every room. On this evening, too, girls are afraid to spin lest in the morning they should find their distaffs twisted, the threads broken, and the yarn in confusion. (We shall meet with like superstitions during the Twelve Nights.) At midnight the girls practise a strange ceremony: they go to a willow-bordered brook, cut the bark of a tree partly away, without detaching it, make with a knife a cross on the inner side of the cut bark, moisten it with water, and carefully close up the opening. On New Year’s Day the cutting is opened, and the future is augured from the marking found. The lads, on the other hand, look out at midnight for a mysterious light, the Luzieschein, the forms of which indicate coming events.

Clement Miles

The mention of cuts on the tree bark harkens to other customs across the Northern Tradition umbrella, including folktales of Woodwives, Moss People, the Buschgroßmuttter, even some other wild hunt Goddess figures (Walpurga, Berchta, Frau Holle) and trees explored in the folktale collections of Rochholz’s Drei Gaugöttinen: Walburg, Verena und Gertrud, and Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology. Winifred Hodge once theorized that the cross shape may have possibly been a nauthiz rune (ᚾ) in heathen antiquity.

Lower Austrian customs speak of a procession through the house. In other areas of Europe the eldest daughter in her role as light bringer might walk the property with her candle from house, through barn and stable, and around the boundaries of the farmstead to ward it from evil. One imagines in pre-Christian times this was probably accompanied by prayers of invocations to the Holy Powers for protection, the prayers and incense mentioned in the lower Austrian customs.

In Northern Europe, especially some of the most extreme latitudes, there can be very, very little daylight indeed. Northern most areas of Sweden have around 2 hours of sunlight on the winter solstice. We know that lack of sun can be a lack of both mental well-being, but physical well-being as well causing vitamin D deficiencies. The celebration marks the start of the holiday season. On the morning of December 13, households will designate a member of the household (usually the eldest daughter) to serve drinks and baked treats including pepparkakor (ginger snap cookies), mulled wine (glögg), coffee as well as saffron baked goods like cookies or the more iconic treat lussekatter in honor of Lucy’s Day.

Saffron featured prominently in Gotland, Sweden by the 1300s, lending itself to inclusion in the iconic Gotland Pancake (saffranspannkaka) that was a treat of the yule season. It may have made it to Sweden much earlier, albeit in limited distribution, because the Vikings had extensive trade routes. We do know that the Romans used to cultivate saffron in southern Gaul, and we have evidence of old Roman recipes using the ingredient such as jussele, mentioned in Galfridus (Anglicus)’ Promptorium parvulorum sive clericorum. Gaul was an area populated with Celtic tribes that we know Germanic tribes had interactions with (plus, they had interactions with the Romans, too). So it’s possible the spice was known to the Germanic peoples (at least some of the elite) long before booming in popularity in the Middle Ages.

Saffron then, as well as today is one of the most expensive spices in the world. Saffron only blooms once per year for two weeks. Each bloom has 3 pistils that must be harvested by hand just after sunrise for full flavor efficacy once the bloom opens for the day. Over 150,000 flowers have to be harvested this way to net just 1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds of spice. So any food made with saffron already denotes it as a special dish reserved for important celebrations, but the harvesting for this foodway preserves sacred connection to the sun. The yellow color used in those saffron spiced treats are a nod to Lussi’s connections as a light bringer. One presumes the eating of these treats in the morning once the sun has pierced the darkness once again could be the conclusion in some areas to the warding of the property from the night before, and the corresponding nightlong vigil.

While there’s a few different Christian origin stories for Saint Lucia (or Lucy), one of them has her bringing light to persecuted Christians hiding in the catacombs surrounded by the dead with nothing but a lit wreath to guide her. Symbolically, traversing the dark and realm of the dead with light, seems to fit with pre-Christian symbolism. There is another story of how a woman with golden radiance appeared in a boat with food during a time of great hunger as well, who disappeared once the food was delivered. Another comes from what seems to be an attempt by the Church to demonize her, saying she was another wife of the Biblical Adam that consorted with Lucifer, and the unholy product of their union would be the demons or lussiferda.

The traditional depiction of Saint Lucia is of a woman clad in white. We know this is sacred iconography that is referenced time and again in Northern Tradition areas. We see this mentioned in Tacitus’ Germania that priest or priestesses wore white, we also see in the folk traditions mentioned by Grimm that women clad in white appeared at dawn for Ostara/Eostre.

Lussesang – A Song for Lussi

Watch on YouTube

While I don’t agree with the song’s description saying this is for Freya (and thus assuming that Lussi is an aspect of Freya), the lyrics only mention Lussi and Alfrodul (an attested name for Sunna) and the lyrics are perfect for Lussinatt. If you visit this song on youtube, you can find the lyrics in Swedish and English if you expand the description.

Hail to you Lussa holy among the holy, the bright dis of Yule. Drive with your light from the valleys of the Earth the darkness of midwinter.

(Excerpted English translated Lyrics from Lussesang)

At its heart this is a festival of lights in the darkness where observed in Europe, including Sweden, Norway, Finland, as well as parts of Estonia, Croatia, and Italy. Denmark began observing it in 1944 when Franz Wend imported it from Sweden as a cultural counter protest to Nazi Germany and their occupation of Denmark. Plus across the diaspora of communities created through Swedish immigration elsewhere. The Nordic Museum has a small gallery of photos of Lussinacht celebrations from the first half of the 20th Century.

I will leave you with this striking, cinematographic observance of Lussi’s Night “Light in the Darkness” by Jonna Jinton, an artist, musician and filmmaker living in the northern woodlands of Sweden.

Watch on YouTube

*Updates: 
December 2, 2021 with Swedish terminology.
December 10, 2022 with information about saffron rarity, harvesting, and references. 

I made use of The Nordiscka Museet’s website, they had an amazing bibliography, referenced below in addition to some other sources as well.

References

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