Santa Lucia Day & Las Posadas- Episode 5

Cover Art by Diane Newcomer

Episode Notes:

Join Diane and Russ in this weeks episode of "I Believe In," your spiritual formation podcast for kids and families. This episode shares about Santa Lucia and Las Posadas, inviting families to learn about different cultural celebrations.

• Highlights:

  • Santa Lucia Spotlight: Russ shares the Swedish festival's origins and symbolism, exploring the remarkable journey of Santa Lucia and her connection to light.

  • Las Posadas Exploration: Discover the vibrant traditions of this Latin American celebration as Diane uncovers the heartwarming reenactment of Mary and Joseph's quest for shelter.

  • Interactive Fun: Enjoy jokes, riddles, and engaging conversations that make learning about these traditions an enjoyable family experience.

Transcript:

Diane: Hello and welcome to "I Believe In” your spiritual formation podcast for kids and families. I'm Diane.

Russ:  I'm Russ. Thanks for joining us on this episode.

Diane: We’re so excited that you're here and if you are loving I believe in I would encourage you to share it with a friend.

Russ: Yeah, share it. Like it. Post a review. It's very helpful for other people to discover the podcast.

Diane: You know the best way to have other people discover the podcast?

Russ: No.

Diane: Tell them personally.

Russ: Yes.

Diane: So if you're enjoying this, parents, tell a friend.

Russ: Yes. Send a text. Help someone else learn more about the church calendar.

Diane: Yes. So the whole, like, the start of our podcast here, we're talking a lot about Advent and special Saints days, which when we're out of this big season, and this is a pretty big season in the church calendar, we'll move on to different topics, but right now we're focusing on more Christmas topics, and I did an episode or we did an episode that focused on something that was more related to me when we did the Stingy Jack story because I'm Irish.

Russ: Yes.

Diane: And this episode, we're going to focus on something that you grew up with.

Russ: Yes. So I have a lot of Swedish background and heritage, and so in December, there is a festival that is important to Swedes, Scandinavians, and then their descendant and that is Santa Lucía Day or St. Lucía's Day.  So it happens every year on December 13th. Now when I was growing up, one of the things that happened is our church had a Swedish women's tea every December.

Diane: I don't know what that means. I never... I never heard of a woman's tea growing up.

Russ:  I see, I think it

Diane:  Being that you're not a woman, you probably never went to a woman's tea.

Russ: I never got to go to the woman's tea, but my sisters were Santa Lucía girls, so they got to go. But it grew out of this Santa Lucía festival, and so the Santa Lucía girls had garlands around their head that had candles in them, and I don't know if they lit the candles, but when my mom was a kid and going to a Swedish Lutheran church, I'm pretty sure they did have the garland and light the candles.

Diane: Your parents were very involved and grandparents and great-grandparents were very involved in the Swedish Church.

Russ: Yes, my great-grandfather was a Swedish pastor and preached in Swedish for quite a while.

Diane: Did you grandma like the Swedish chef on the Muppets?

Russ: Yes, I think grandma was amused by the Swedish chef on the Muppets because he spoke Swedish about as good as she did.

Diane: Yes,

Russ: So, Santa Lucia in doing research for this episode though, I discovered that Santa Lucia is not from Sweden or Scandinavia.

Diane: No?

Russ: No.

Diane: Well, how does that make any sense?

Russ: It is a church tradition that grew and people in Scandinavia really really like Santa Lucia and and there's some legends that maybe she visited or there is a visitation to Sweden.

Diane: With her in a boat right?

Russ: Right. So she became very popular. What we know from history is Santa Lucia lived on the island of Sicily in the 300s and that she was a martyr for her Christian faith.

Diane: She lived during the Diocletian

Russ: Yes, the Diocletian persecution.

Diane: Are you impressed?

Russ: I am.

Diane: You told me that earlier.

Russ: I know, so, one of the legends is that her mother had been sick and then was miraculously healed and Santa Lucia decided that she would devote her life to Jesus and never get married, and then later, she, someone wanted to marry her and when she refused that that man outed her as a Christian and then she was persecuted because of that.

Diane: I don't think he would have been a good choice even if she hadn't decided to devote herself to Jesus.

Russ: That sounds like not a good choice either way. So, one of the things about Santa Luccia is that her name Lucy has some root words along with light, and so the festival for her began to be celebrated in December when it is some of the shortest days, the longest nights of the the year and so that's why there's candles and festivals that involve light With Santa Lucía.

Diane: You know what we've really been enjoying doing what going out and looking at Christmas lights at night.

Russ: Yeah

Diane: It’s so dark and it gets so dark early. It's really fun to go out and look at lights and celebrate light in the darkness

Russ: Yeah, and it's really fun to see what other people do too to celebrate Jesus's birth and celebrate Christmas.

Diane: You know what else I learned about Santa Lucia?

Russ: What?

Diane: So you said that she put these candles in a wreath around her head, but I don't think you said why they do that. You just said they do that at this women's tea.

Russ: They do that all over where Scandinavian celebrated.

Diane: Yes. I learned that it's believed that she went and visited the catacombs to help persecuted Christians, and since those are really dark, she put all these candles around her head so that she could carry things down there, because her hands would be full, so she couldn't carry a candle down, so she put the candles around her head.

Russ: That I had never heard that, but that makes a lot of sense.

Diane: Yeah, And when you're saying, I just had to clarify again, because this is really bothering me. A women's tea is where the women of the church gather together and drink tea?

Russ: Yes.

Diane: Okay. So, that is on, like we said, December 13th. It used to be on December 21st, which is the Winter Solstice the shortest day of the year, but when they change the calendar around, they've changed the calendar around a bunch of times, so I'm not sure exactly which one, but they moved it to December 13th, and there are some countries that celebrate it as the festival of lights.

Diane: Now I have a riddle

Russ: From the riddles desk?

Diane: From the riddles desk.

Russ: Okay.

Diane: This is from https://riddles-for-kids.org/candle-riddles/

I just want to give credit where credit is due.

I get blown out, but I'm not a bubble.

I get shorter the more I'm used, but I'm not a pencil.

I'm made of wax, but I'm not a crayon.

I can help you see in the dark, but I'm not a flashlight.

I'm often found on a birthday cake, but I'm not icing.

Don't answer. We're gonna give it away at the end.

Russ: Do we have any other desks that want to be featured?

Diane: Well, we have another holiday that's coming up on December 16th. This is one that I became familiar with from Adventures in Odyssey, Grandma's Visit. What was the episode?

Russ: Episode 678.

Diane: It’s called Las Posadas, and it is celebrated in Mexico and other Latin American countries, and they have a novena that features people who dress as Mary and Joseph, and they go around the town and ask for places that they can stay and they're denied.  It's like the Nativity that's done as a play and I know that it's celebrated in the United States as well and in Mexico it's a really big deal for Latin American countries.

Russ: That’s, that's really interesting that they have this celebration that's kind of like a nativity but it moves around the city.

Diane: Yes, so they recreate the story.

Russ: That’s very different. than what we do, because in America you go to the church.

Diane: Oh if you wanted to see a live nativity you go to the church but they come to you.

Russ: Yeah that's really cool,

Diane: and that's on December 16th. Now it's time for the joke's desk.

Russ:  Okay.

Diane: Why did the candle go to school?

Russ: To get It's smarter

Diane: because it wanted to be brighter.

Russ: Oh brighter.

Diane: Okay. How did the candle lose its job?

Russ: It went out.

Diane: It got fired.

Russ: Oh That's a good one.

Diane: All right, there are jokes.

Russ: All right. Well, I hope the listeners learned some about Santa Lucia and some about Las Posadas. It's always interesting to explore what other cultures and other Christian traditions celebrate around holidays and around the church calendar.

Diane: It is.

Thanks for joining us this week on AHHHHH!! The Answer to the riddle!

Russ: Oh, okay, what's the answer to the riddle?

Diane: It’s a candle!

Russ: Oh, that's a good one, that's a good one.

Diane: I go on birthday cakes, but I'm not icing. Yeah. That was trying to throw you off.

Together: Thanks for joining us on. I believe in him.