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Posts Tagged ‘santa lucia’

Friends and Family Photos

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 9, 2016| 2 Comments »

Today I thought I would post a few photos that other people have taken.

First, we have my great nephew at a Christmas concert. He is right up front, but I confess I can’t be sure I spotted him. My niece, a violinist, sends lots of music photos. She teaches orchestra in middle school in North Carolina. Her husband is a fine piano player. Their daughter, in college, is highly accomplished on the flute. One of their 10-year-old boys plays violin, the other plays piano but is considering taking up cello, too, in order to play in orchestra concerts like the one pictured.

The next photo shows Erik’s niece in a Sankta Lucia service last month. She lives in Denmark. I have also included snapshots of Suzanne and Erik’s kids. My husband took some at the Children’s Museum and also at the house. Erik or Suzanne took the one of two grandparents struggling to get the ballet shoes on a young lady with a mind of her own. I’m not sure who was behind the camera as I was really concentrating on the shoes.

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Swedish Artist, 1882-1918

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Photo of John Bauer: Wikimedia Commons

When I was poking around the web for art to illustrate my post Iceland Has Elves, I found a lovely picture by John Bauer.

I didn’t know anything about him. But Stuga40 wrote in the comments that he was Swedish. She knew where he had lived before his untimely death in 1918 and said she grew up on his fairy stories.

I decided I wanted to know more.

Wikipedia says John Bauer is “best known for his illustrations of Bland tomtar och troll (Among Gnomes and Trolls). Princess Tuvstarr and the Fishpond  [is] perhaps Bauer’s most notable work. …

“Bauer’s early work was influenced to a large extent by Albert Engström and Carl Larsson, two contemporaries and influential painters. Bauer’s first major work was commissioned in 1904, when he was asked to illustrate a book on Lappland. It was not until 1907 that he would become known for his illustrations of Bland tomtar och troll, the yearly fairy tale book.”

A contemporary story collection called Swedish Folk Tales uses Bauer’s illustrations and is available here. Also, someone posted a bunch of his illustrations on Pinterest, including a sweet Santa Lucia.

John Bauer art showing a boy and a troll: Wikimedia Commons

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The Old World Never Died

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 13, 2013| 4 Comments »

Erik is in no danger of giving up Sweden. Today he and Suzanne took my grandson to a Santa Lucia celebration in a friend’s house, and Erik helped with the singing and wore a pointy hat that I never knew was part of the deal. (I always thought the Santa Lucia ceremony was just about a girl with candles in her hair.) Swedish customs are living on in Rhode Island.

In Queens, New York, customs from home countries are not only flourishing but being passed to new generations. I liked a story on the topic by Lynnette Chiu at Narratively.

“As soon as the children conclude their routine,” she writes, “the 300-capacity ballroom echoes with the sound of coins hitting the dance floor. The young boys in lederhosen and girls in scarlet dirndl dresses break formation and a scramble ensues to collect the loose change and dollar bills tossed their way by family and friends. The joy is in the gathering rather than the gains; as per tradition, they obediently deposit their loot in the outstretched aprons of the dance group’s older girls.

“While the movements of Die Erste Gottscheer Tanzgruppe—The First Gottscheer Dance Group—are the occasion of the day, it’s the older generation who are doing most of the afternoon’s dancing. …

“Meticulously set tables accommodate pitchers of Hofbrau, wine bottles and cocktail glasses, leaving the family-style platters of chicken cutlet, pork loin and all the trimmings jostling for real estate. …

“What began as a place to preserve and celebrate Gottscheer culture has now become a go-to locale for other communities in [the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens] to nurture their own traditions. Along with numerous quinceañeras—rite of passage fifteenth birthday parties for Latin American girls—Gottscheer Hall hosts the gatherings of the Ridgewood Nepalese Society, and recently opened its doors to the Ridgewood Market, where artsy vendors hawk vintage wares and DIY baubles.” Read more at Narratively.

Photo: Aaron Adler

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