St Lucia's Day

This article is part of a 3 part series currently featuring on the Borough Market website which focuses on a few religious festivals celebrated in December, other than Christmas, and the foods associated with them. I interviewed trader Erica Fransson, who grew up in the South-East of Sweden near Kalmar, to get some local insight on the festivities.

Food is the most basic human necessity; we depend on it for our survival. Food can also build and sustain communities and identity. When we cook, taste and eat food together we create shared memories and powerful social bonds. It is hardly surprising then that food is so often used in religion as a symbol not only of the divine, but of life itself.

On St Lucia’s Day (13^th December) in Sweden, food is one of a number of material symbols used to tell the story of  Lucia, a young Christian girl who was martyred in 304. “Sankta Lucia used to go in the catacombs in Italy and give food to Christians who were hiding there,” Erica Fransson, trader at New Forest Cider, tells me. The story goes that she used to wear a wreath or crown on her head with candles to light her way and to free her hands to carry the food. 

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