Those with a taste for sparse, restrained, melodic Nordic jazz, with a smidgeon of seasonal flavour, may enjoy the new release by Bröderna Johansson: Stilla Jul. (It’s on Spotify). Traditional Swedish Xmas favourites with just piano and double bass played by Anders and Jens Johansson, two metal musicians who are more commonly seen in the heavy company of the likes of AW favourite, Yngve Malmsteen. They are the sons of the late, very great jazz pianist, Jan Johansson, who died tragically young in a car crash in 1968. Their dad would have certainly enjoyed their new album where they breathe new life into his gentle legacy rather than indulging in high volume noodling.
It is Santa Lucia here today in Sweden and you can’t move for small children dressed as Lucias, elves, gingerbread men and starboys. What a very odd affair it is too. A strange mixture of pagan Midwinter celebration, beauty contest and Ku Klux Klan rally. I love it!
A Lucia procession is best experienced outdoors early in the morning in several inches of snow. I celebrated once indoors at the Finance Ministry: gourmet biccies and top notch glögg but I missed the shiver of frosty, Asgardian magic.
I don’t doubt that Locust and Neela have vivid memories of dressing up in a white nighty with candles in their hair. It all has to be seen to be believed. (see comments).
Kaisfatdad says
The same song sung by an army of “starboys”.
And now a Lucia
or two
Kaisfatdad says
And just in case you think the Lucia tradition is a bit wacko, we are not in the same league as the Austrians and their Krampus processions…..
Kaisfatdad says
Now I really am playing with fire! At the risk of re-igniting the Abba Wars, here are Agneta and Frida singing one of my favourite Lucia hymns. Such a beautiful tune: Now as Xmas approaches.
Kaisfatdad says
And there I was thinking that having real candles in your hair was a bit dodgy ……
hubert rawlinson says
Or this.
Kaisfatdad says
Totally extraordinary! Love the wacky costumes too. Thanks Hubert.
Talk about a cue for a song!
Sewer Robot says
“top notch glögg” – that’s how you get a party rocking!
Kaisfatdad says
Glögg is a rather sweet Swedish variation on mulled wine served with almonds and dried fruit and popular during Advent. It’s fine to start the evening off but one glass goes a long way for me.
I suspect that as it was 7.00 am in the morning, the Finance Minister did not want the party to get too out of hand, Sewer.
One of my best Lucia memories was during my early days in Sweden when I was teaching evening classes in medical English. A bevy of nurses in white nighties turned up on my doorstep with candles in their hair and did a Lucia procession round my one room flat!
Moose the Mooche says
Or at least that was the version of events your solicitor issued.
Colin H says
“A dollop of frosty, Nordic, pagan magic, oozing with starboys, gingerbread men and flaming blondes” – I thought you were describing an evening in Locust’s house, Fatz!
Kaisfatdad says
How do you I wasn’t, Colin?
We starboys are very discrete!
Kaisfatdad says
Have just been watching a Lucia service on TV. A lass with a punk haircut, whose arms were covered in tats, did a quite magnificent, pleasantly under-stated version of this gorgeous hymn.
The conehead starboys look like absolute wallies. I’m rather glad that was not part of my childhood.
Everyone in the audience was holding a plastic electric candle and the overall effect is magnificent. Choir singing is the second most popular hobby in Sweden (after football) and it shows. The singing was fabulous.
For Swedish speakers, I just stumbled across this version of Staffan the Stableboy by the legendary Cornelis Vreeswijk.
The lyrics are rather different than those normally sung by the starboys.
Richie B says
Been to the Storkyrka service and also Helsinki town hall. Both transgressed UK Health and safety regulations….
I like the buns too!
Kaisfatdad says
Glad to hear that you also enjoy Lucia, Ritchie. But then again, who would not succumb to the magic of this wonderful day?
Strangely enough, I’ve just been enjoying a Lussikatt myself
I almost got myself into trouble when i took that photo of the shop window at Gunnarsson’s Bakery on Götgatan. I got a very dirty look from one of the salesgirls.
I rushed in to explain.
“I wasn’t taking a photo of you. Honest! I just wanted to capture the glory of your buns for my friend, Moose in Hull. He likes that sort of thing.”
I fear this comment may not have helped matters.
Locust says
Lucia is a lot of fun between the ages of 10 and 15, especially if you’re a member of a school choir. But it’s hard work as well – first you have to get up practically in the middle of the night to be ready for the first Lucia procession, then you have to do it again all through the day and long into the night, at different venues for different audiences.
At school I was indeed in the choir, but also part of a group of friends who’d perform at the annual Lucia party for our mums’ so called husmorsgymnastikgrupp*, late at night. A very long day indeed. (*this was long before gyms and yoga classes…!)
I haven’t seen a Lucia procession since I left school – I’m sound asleep at that ungodly hour! 😀
But I did eat a lussekatt today.
@Kaisfatdad, have you tried the Blossa Cognacsglögg? Yum! Strong, and not as sickly sweet as wine glögg.
Kaisfatdad says
No I have not. I will look out for it’ Thanks @Locust.
A rather unusual discovery I made this year was mango glögg (bright orange bottle with a 17 on it in Systemet). It may sound odd but it really is rather good, largely because it is not so sweet.
Who would have thought the AW would host a discussion like this?
Intersting to read about your experiences as a hardcore teenage Lucia handmaid. My primary experience of the celebrations has been the early morning/late afternoon celebration at the nursery school, No more of that. to quote our son: “”I am 14 years old and I do not do that shit any more!” Lucia Day is notorious for teenage boozing. That’s the next thing we have to look forward to.
Back to those wacky English traditions. Here’s another: the Old Glory Molly Dancers from Suffolk, a variation of Morris dancing done with blackened faces. They look a tad sinister.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYcP4T_jLnQ
But does Morris derive from Moorish. David Cameron got into hot water for posing with some. This article covers a bit of the history.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/black-faced-morris-dancers-traditional-disguise-or-simply-racist-9794704.html
Whereas Lucia is very much a national tradition, most of these British processions and dances seem to be very local, often just in one town or village.
hubert rawlinson says
There’s also Burning the Clavie in January.
Kaisfatdad says
Magnificently pagan stuff, Hubert! I have never seen a clavie before, let alone a burning clavie.
There is a certain glee in the fact that these traditions are all a total H and S nightmare.
Colin H says
Northern Ireland also has arcane seasonal traditions of people dressing up and bonfires and marching around. But none of it is worth the oxygen of publicity.
Kaisfatdad says
Good point there, Colin. When a tradition is a bit too modern, it is not quite so charming. Maybe the clavie was not always so unthreatening?
Even Lucia in its current form is fairly modern. The saint’s day and the Midwinter solstice have been celebrated for yonks. But the white nighty processions date from 1927 when a newspaper organized a public procession.
Of course there were other processions going on at that time of Aryan ideology which were far from harmless.
Less so now, but back in the day, there was a lot of competition to be chosen as the class/village/ city Lucia. A big test of your popularity.
Alias says
“A strange mixture of pagan Midwinter celebration, beauty contest and Ku Klux Klan rally”. Sounds like they’e preparing for Donald Trump’s state visit.
Kaisfatdad says
What an amusing thought@Alias!
Lucia is all so bizarre anyway. The Trumpster as a star-boy would fit in very nicely.
hubert rawlinson says
Hogmanay Stonehaven Aberdeenshire has this.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vARkSAzFVYU
Kaisfatdad says
Fireball swingers!! Stupendous!
This thread is turning into a Pyrophile’s Guide to Europe.
I attended the Bonfire Night in Lewes in Sussex back in the day and it was an event and a half. It is always very satirical.
And as regards fireworks and burning elaborate stuff up. The Fallas in Valencia is in a class of its own.
And then there’s the hilarious tale of the Gävle Xmas Goat…..