SaTurnAllia- 12_13_12 St. Lucia's Day

HAPPY SaTurnAllia Everyone !

To-day is the  13th !

 No matter the month, 13 is always the best.  It has always been my favorite number.

Many around the world Celebrate on the 13th of December.  They use Lucy as their reason for dancing, lighting candles and eating yummy spiced bread.

Saint Lucy (283–304), also known as Santa Lucia, was a wealthy young Christian martyr, killed in Syracuse, Italy, for refusing to submit to her heathen husband,.  There are many legends of how she was killed, all come to the same dark end....her eyes were plucked out.

YOW-ZAH !!

", . In some versions of the tale God restores her sight. She is shown here on the right with two of her traditional symbols or attributes - the palm-frond of Martyrdom and her own eyes upon a salver or cake-stand! 

The Lussekatter or Lussebollar are spiced buns flavoured with saffron and other spices and traditionally presented in the form an inverted S with two raisins a-top (perhaps representing St Lucy's plucked out eyes!?). 

Her feast day in the West is 13 December (to-day!); with a name derived from lux, lucis meaning "light"

December 13 was the date of the Winter Solstice in the Old Julian Calendar (replaced by to-day's Gregorian Calendar in Britain in 1752, where Wednesday,12 September was immediately followed by Thursday, 14 September - a change that brought considerable consternation and rioting at the time ----but not here and now cuz our theme song today comes un-ashamedly  from Cool and the Gang..............C E L E B R A T E  good times, C'mon !!!!  !!   !!  !!

The Metaphysical Poet, and Dean of St. Paul's cathedral, John Donne wrote his poem "A Nocturnal upon St. Lucie's Day, being the shortest day" in 1627. The poem begins with: "'Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's," and expresses, in a mourning piece, the withdrawal of the world-spirit into sterility and darkness, where "The world's whole sap is sunk."

A good day for delicious hot Wassail and buns, in other words!

AND SO, IN HONOR OD THE WONDERFUL,very ALIVE

LUCIA de-BO-TOWN........we celebrate

 S(uper)T(errific) . LUCY's Day the SaTurnAllia way by eating Steve's YUMMIE-LICIOUS buns ! 

With each bun, we mention a person that "lights up" our life and then have fun describing evidence to support our claim!

Instead of Lussekatt'a  we named our buns LUYL Buns (Lighten Up You Life)

Lucia, this bun's for you ...lol

And if you are getting this email- we are eating one in your honor as well!

 

When Steve and I went to the market to buy saffron, which is the spice used in the tradidional LUYL/Lussekatter buns, we discovered that A gram ( fills less than a tablespoon's worth) of Saffron cost more than $20.00.

The sales clerk followed us through the check out process to ensure that we paid full price for our (quite literally) precious spice.

Steve commented that it is worth more than gold.....

In another legend (that gets as much attention as St. Lucy), three Wise men, of great wealth, came to pay respects to a baby believed to be an ethereal deliverer. They brought the family gold (understandable), Frankincense (spices)& Myrrh (balm agent) .

I have to say, I now have a greater appreciation for the thoughtfulness of the wise guy who brought the spices!

May you all have wonderful December-the 13th

\|,,/