Lucia revisited

Lucia celebrations on 13 December bring a gleam of light in the winter darkness. When there is hardly any daylight at all in the northern hemisphere, Lucia comes with hope of brighter times. The stately procession with a white-clad Lucia accompanied by her maids, star boys, and sometimes elves became common in the 1950s. But the feast of Lucia goes back much further in history, and it is o