Texas Ranger

Will take care of it for a while.

Texas Ranger is now ready to continue his travel after all going on the spree with Thorwald Helgeson TBE8B8 and his relatives.

Texas Ranger (TB95A4)and Thorwald Helgeson (TBE8B8) experience their first Lucia event.

Lucia and her maids arrive in the dark hours of the midwinter dawn, dressed in white with candles on their heads and singing the Lucia song. This tradition means that you wake up to singing and are served coffee in bed. There are untold numbers of foreign visitors to Sweden who have woken up in terror, convinced that they have died in the night and are now in the company of the heavenly hosts, singing angels and all.
Celebration always takes place on November 13th which was the darkest day of the year in the old almanac which was in use up to 1753. This date was also when Lent commenced according to mediaeval tradition.
St. Lucia was a Sicilian saint who died in AD 304 and who is celebrated by the Roman Catholic church, but she has nothing to do with the Swedish Lucia. This tradition is thought to have derived from a girl dressed in white with a ring of candles in her hair, originating among German protestants in the 16th century as a substitute for the Catholic St. Nicholas. She was supposed to represent the Infant Jesus and like St. Nicholas she would arrive with gifts for the children at Christmas.
The tradition was brought to Sweden by Germans who settled here in the 17th century. The Swedes then changed the date from Christmas to December 13th and left it to Santa Claus to deliver the gifts. Today, apart from all the private Lucias, we also have the ones in schools and the one which the readers of the local newspapers vote for after having seen photos of the likely candidates. Lucia and her maids then perform voluntary work by singing in hospitals and old people’s homes.