This is the day people all over Scandinavia – and most especially in Sweden – celebrate St Lucy’s Day. Even though I used to be light blonde as a kid and therefore got to be Lucia at least once (my memory fails me), I’ve thought the tradition of choosing the girl with long blonde hair over any other kid a strange one. I’m not going to claim any laudable insightfulness for my young self, most probably – and therefore an apt theme for this blog, which is, after all, supposed to be about books – I read a book where a dark haired girl – or even a boy – was devastated because they were not even in the running for the part.
In Sweden, apparently, there is a tradition to vote on who gets to be the «leading lady». I can’t remember that ever being an issue with us, but again, my memory may be faulty. In any case, it’s a method fraught with problems. The obvious being maiking it a popularity contest and probably sending signals about looks being more important than anything else. Precisely for that reason, it is likely to be highjacked, especially as the voters get older. Here is an image from a Swedish newspaper a few years ago, from a story that a school voted for a beaver for Lucia:
Two of my favourite bloggers have also written about St Lucy’s Day and the various problems with the «tradition» thereof, which is what brought on this post: Ketchupmamman and Antibloggeren (in Swedish and Norwegian, respectively). You should read them both.