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Advent Music Day 11 Natten går tunga fjät ("The night walks with heavy steps")

On December 13th we break into the sanctoral cycle of saints' feast days again, with the much loved St Lucy, or Lucia. Her feast is perhaps most observed in Sweden and other Nordic countries. How a Sicilian martyr's feast took such strong hold so far from home is hard to say exactly, but her name means "light", and nowhere knows better the power of light in darkness than the lands of the polar night .

Natten går tunga fjät, runt gård och stuva.
Kring jord som sol’n förlät, skuggorna ruva.
Då i vårt mörka hus, stiger med tända ljus,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.

Natten var stor och stum. Nu, hör, det svingar
i alla tysta rum, sus som av vingar.
Se, på vår tröskel står, vitklädd med ljus i hår,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.

Mörkret skall flykta snart, ur jordens dalar.
Så hon ett underbart ord till oss talar.
Dagen skall åter ny, stiga ur rosig sky,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.

- Arvid  Rosén

Sweden's national Lucia concert of 2020 was based in Jukkasjärvi, in the far north, and the mostly outdoor settings and small groups make for perhaps the most evocative and atmospheric Lucia yet:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOzIw1UEHMg
- begins with Sankta Lucia as always, same tune as above but different text, "Sankta Lucia, ljusklara hägring"

 

Photo by KaLisa Veer on Unsplash