One of the things we were really looking forward to, back in 2020 when we first came to Sweden, was the St Lucia parade. The night when young girls parade the streets, singing and carrying candles, welcoming in the beginning of the longer days, cancelling out the seemingly endless night. The parade is led by one lucky girl who wears a candleholder on her head, in which are a bunch of lit candles.
Sadly, due to the pandemic making big gatherings inadvisable, mass events were cancelled so we missed out back then. This year, however, we are determined to see one. The big day is 13 December, which is tomorrow, when the St Lucia parade happens in the middle of Trosa. Of course, we’ll be going.
Today, however, we were surprised by a text from Nicoline. We were meeting her for lunch but she suggested we arrive early and listen to a ‘surprise concert’ in the kulturhuset in Ytterjärna. The café where we were having lunch is in the same building, so it wasn’t difficult, though it was difficult finding somewhere to park Max.
The kulturhuset is situated in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by big fields of snow and bordered by the E4 on one side and the Baltic on the other. The buildings are all painted in various shades of blue and rise from the ground like so many unlikely monoliths.
Inside, the bottom floor of the main building is made up of the café, an unattended reception desk, a table tennis table and, today at any rate, thousands of people and their coats. The area around the table tennis table was a veritable sea of winter coats.
After a bit of investigation, Mirinda found the entrance to the theatre, and we stood at the back of the full auditorium and were enchanted by a choir of young girls (around 50) singing a selection of songs beautifully. According to Magnus, the girls are from the same school he attended many years ago.
We met up with Magnus a little later. I will be cooking at Lagnö Bo with him and Annika on Friday, and we’d planned a meeting to discuss what we’d be doing.
As we entered the auditorium, the concert had already started and the stairs either side of the audience were lined with candle bearers who, eventually, drifted down to the stage to join the rest of the choir.
The first half of the concert finished with an amazing rendition of St Lucia as they all slowly drifted off the stage.
We were then treated to some beautiful piano playing before the choir returned to sing some Christmas songs including the best choreographed rendition of Jingle Bells I think I’ve ever heard.
I uploaded it as a reel on Instagram (which is why it’s shot in portrait) but the app trimmed it. I’ve uploaded the whole thing to YouTube, here:
If you’re viewing it on a PC, watching it full screen is best.
After the delights of the concert, we battled the millions of relatives in the café in order to have a buffet lunch. Nicoline had planned ahead and organised a table and food for three. She forgot we were bringing Denise. This meant that Mirinda had to join the massive, snaking queue in order to receive an empty plate.
Eventually we sat and enjoyed a lovely lunch, excitedly telling Nicoline how much we enjoyed the concert. It was a delightful surprise.
Apologies for the blurry image. It was very dark, and we were a long way away.
A little later, I returned to the Vårdcentralen and was seen by the same, beautiful nurse from the other day. She was pleased with the progress of my wound and handed me a load of bandages and goop, so I could change the dressing myself over the next week. She then booked me in to see her again on December 22.
