Swedish Christmas traditions part 1

The annual candlelit Lucia procession on 13 December is perhaps one of the more exotic-looking Swedish customs,with girls and boys clad in white full-length gowns singing songs togeher.Among the youngest,anyone can be Lucia :as the children get older competition will harden.The Lucia celebrations also include ginger snaps and sweet, saffron-flavoured buns (lussekatter) shaped like curled-up cats and with raisin eyes. You eat them with glögg or coffee. 

The Lucia tradition can be traced back both to St Lucia of Syracuse, a martyr who died in 304, and to the Swedish legend of Lucia as Adam’s first wife. It is said that she consorted with the Devil and that her children were invisible infernals. Thus the name may be associated with both lux (light) and Lucifer (Satan), and its origins are difficult to determine. The present custom appears to be a blend of traditions. 

The first recorded appearance of a white-clad Lucia in Sweden was in a country house in 1764. The custom did not become universally popular in Swedish society until the 1900s, when schools and local associations in particular began promoting it. The old lussegubbarcustom virtually disappeared with urban migration, and white-clad Lucias with their singing processions were considered a more acceptable, controlled form of celebration than the youthful carousals of the past. Stockholm proclaimed its first Lucia in 1927. The custom whereby Lucia serves coffee and buns (lussekatter) dates back to the 1880s, although the buns were around long before that.

 In recent times of questioning gender roles .the question of why Lucia can not be male has turned up causing some controversy. A male Lucia hovever may not be entirely new.

This Lucia from 1875 on apicture found at the Kulturen museum in Lund clearly shows a male Lucia. A student named  Johan Albert Heribert Brag 1856-1926 (later newspaper editor).

Here is a link to a recipe of Saffron buns often served at Lucia.

In 2012 the Lucia showed in TV was a black girl which caused a minor uproar since the Lucia has traditionally been supposed to be blond. so some people thought it unsuitable with a darkskinned Lucia since she is supposed to be a bringer of light and joy .. And swedish TV recieved a lot of racist comments.

Since nobody knows the exact skin and hair coulour of St Lucia of Syracuse I think a darkskinned Lucia is OK .However St Lucia of Sicily was clearly female.

Titanic: The Exhibition on Halmstad Arena

I have now visited an interesting   Titanic Exhibition   at Halmstad  Arena  in Halmstad  in Halland
The Exhibition lasts until August 31 and it is very interesting. It contains both pictures . models and reconstructions of the Titanic such as  models of the ships cabins and some original items from the ship and its  passengers.

The exhibition is a traveling exhibition that has  travelled around  the world to several places since 2012

 

Especially interesting in the Swedish version of the show in Halmstad is the focus on the Swedish passengers 123 Swedes and Swedish Americans traveled with Titanic 89 of them were killed and 34 survived   My blogpost from 2012 about Titanic and its Scandinavian passengers

Some Swedish passengers for the Titanic

Carl Robert Carlsson - Halland

Carl and  Selma Asplund - Småland

Mauritz Ådahl – Blekinge

Henrik Kvillner – Bohuslän

Gerda and  Edvard Lindell – Skåne

Map of  were the Swedish passengers  came from

Do as I board the Titanic!














 




A good book in english about the Swedish passengers on the Titanic:

Not my time  to die:Titanic and the Swedes on Board   by Lilly  Setterdahl

Great Links about Titanic and its passengers

Titanic Norden (Titanic site with with focus on the Scandinavian passengers)

Encyclopedia Titanica (in English one of the most complete sites about  the Titanic)

Swedes and scandinavians on the Titanic 1

By F.G.O. Stuart (1843-1923) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Just a few days ago it was 100 years since the sinking of Titanic
Of the passagers several were from Scandinavia.

Swedes and Swedish -Americans 123

Saved 34
Perished 89

Danes and Danish-Americans 14

Saved 2
Perished 11

Finnish and Finnish- Americans 63

Saved 20
Perished 43

Norwegians and Noregian-Americans 31

Saved 10

Perished 21

In all 231 Scandinavians on the ship only 66 survived

Around 28% saved. And 72 % lost

Most of the scandinavians were emigrants travelling in second and sterage class.


They were around 17.6 % of Titanics around 1310 passagers
and only 13,3 of its saved passagers. Only one of Titanics crew were
Scandinavian ( a Dane) and he went down the ship.

Do any of My readers have any connections to Titanic and its passagers
Or do you want to hear more about the scandinavians on Titanic.

Sources for this post: Titanic. By Claes-Göran Wetterholm 1999 (in Swedish)





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Anna-Karin in Chicago 2 Mount Olive cemetery

Today I visited some Chicago cemeteries among them
Mount Olive cemetery in Chicago .
It is a non denominational cemetery and it was founded 1886 .








Several Swedish emigrants are buried at the cemetery among them my distant relative on my maternal grandfathers side Lotta Gustafsdotter 1850-1929
married to Per Gustaf Svensson Sundquist In the USA the family called themself Swanson They emigrated in the 1890thies from Sandhult in the province of Västergötland to Chicago.
Lotta is buried in the same grave as her children
Jenny Swanson Jacobsen 1879-1901 and Arvid O Swanson 1886-1963.
Here in Chicago I am staying with some of Lottas descdendants the Bredemann family.

On the cemetery are many graves of swedish emigrants and their descendants. Among famillies I have researched I found the graves of relatives to My uncle Eric (Larsson) Lago (my maternal aunt Karins husband) .Several of his relatives emigrated in 1879thies from Getinge in the province of Halland to Chicago.Among this relatives were Julius Swenson (or Swanson) 1843- and his wife Josephine Nelson (Nilson?)1859-1929. they met in Chicago and had several children.Julius and Josephine are buried in a plot at the cemetery according to cemetery records but no stone are preserved.
However two of their daughters are buried there as well as one grandaughter.Their oldest daughter Hulda J( Swenson) Farrell 1883-1923 and her husband Edward J Farrell 1884-1941 is buried in the same lot as well as the younger daughter Alice S (Swenson) Weslar 1885-1957 and her daughter Gladys (Weslar) Cooksey 1906-1954

Child on the Titanic reidentified

Here is a tips from Collen Fitzpatrick the forensic genealogist.

A body of an unknown child who perished on the Titanic has been reidentified.
Among the around 1500 people who perished on the Titanic were several children.
Around 300 bodies of Titanic victims were recovered and some of them buried in Halifax at the
Fairview Lawn Cemetery
Many of the victims were unidentified. Especially one of a little boy captured peoples imagination and a memorial was erected over him. No one knew his name. But for many years it was thought by some that is was the body of Gösta Pålsson a 2 year old swedish boy who died with his mother and 3 siblings in the sinking.
In 2002 the childs body was dug up very little was left only a pair of small theeth. using DNA the body was identified as a little finnish boy Eino Panula who also died with his mother and siblings. However the DNA result and other circumstances made some researchers unsure about the identification and further research and testings have now reidentified the body
as that of Sidney Leslie Goodwin a 19 month old english boy.Who also died with his family on the Titanic. The first misidentification may partly have come from that the scientist were under some pressure from TV who was making a documentary about the case.