Learning the Culture - Lucia

Today is Sankta Lucia, or the feast of Saint Lucy.
Lucia Day gets even us up before dawn and into town to experience the magic ceremony  as the light comes into the sky and the singers come gliding in and sing those beautiful traditional songs. Usually that is what I blip but today, later in the morning, we were in a supermarket when a small group of little singers arrived from the nursery school next door and sung to both customers and staff.  It was, of course, also incredibly moving but in a slightly different (cuter?) way.
It struck me that what I was seeing today is two parts of a tradition that has been going on since the middle ages in Scandinavia, and in the "modern" way for 200 years. Earliest in the day I saw the finished and polished version (Kappelsberg's music school) and now I was watching these little kids learning how to do the Lucia tradition. Maybe in 15 years or so some of them will be in the library or the cathedral producing that almost professional version! The main Blip is best seen seen in relation to HarlingDarlings blip or the extra here.
I was amused by a sentence in the Wikipedia article on St Lucy''s Day. After much text about the Christian symbolism of all the various elements of the Scandanavian (and Italian) celebrations came...
"It is speculated that the St. Lucia's Day celebrations in Scandinavia may retain a few indigenous Germanic pagan, pre-ChristianMidwinter elements." I should say (speculate?) the entire ceremony is based on pagan Midwinter traditions!  The Swedish "Thought for the Day" presenter on the radio this morning thought it was a non-religious festival of light, and therefore open to all.
Later in the day, as a contrast, we were at the premiere of the "Last of the Jedi" Star Wars film - noisy and fun!
PS It's not often you see Spiderman wearing reindeer antlers - check out the kids!