Swedish community celebrates in style

Santa Lucia celebration at Palma Cathedral. Video by Joan Llado | Youtube: Majorca Daily Bulletin TV

Jason Moore14/12/2023 09:22

The Swedish community celebrated Santa Lucia in style at Palma Cathedral on Wednesday night. Thousands of people attended the event organised by the Swedish school in Palma. The annual candlelit Santa Lucia event on 13 December is perhaps one of the more exotic-looking Swedish customs, with girls and boys clad in white full-length gowns singing songs together.

The real candles are now sometimes replaced with battery-powered ones, but there is still a special atmosphere when the lights are dimmed and the sound of the children singing grows as they enter from an adjacent room.

Tradition has it that Santa Lucia is to wear ‘light in her hair’, which in practice means a crown of electric candles in a wreath on her head. Each of her handmaidens carries a candle, too. Parents gather in the dark with their mobile cameras at the ready.

The event was a huge success. Every year the Swedish school elects one of their pupils to be Santa Lucia. On this occasion it was Melonie Marsh, who admitted to being slightly nervous before the event.