Every year on December 13th, Swedes celebrate St. Lucia Day, marking the beginning of the christmas season. A girl is chosen to play the role of St. Lucia, donning a long white dress with a crown of lit candles on her head.
I attended the Lucia Concert today in Blåhallen, a beautiful old hall, that was arranged by The Culture School (Kulturskolan). I spotted a young girl wearing the headscarf participating in this semi-Christian/Swedish event. Something unthinkable when I grew up in Sweden many moons ago.
A great effort had been made to make it a multicultural Lucia for everyone by choosing a Swedish-Iraqi girl as Lucia that later danced to an oriental tune played in typical Swedish folk-music style with flute.
Classical music and other Swedish folk-tunes were sung by children along with latin chamber music and at the end of the event the most enjoyable part was listening to the older Swedish people saying; "well I think it is nice how they mixed all those cultures".
2 comments:
How cool is that? I would be a blithering wreck at something like this - I get very emotional when I see cultural events of any kind, particularly when there is a blending and harmony between different ethnicities.
you softy nzm :)
It was in a way an emotional experience of harmony. I left feeling slightly euphoric.
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