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Midwinter in Scandinavia is
truly dark and cold. In fact, Viking law ordained that feasts with abundant
food, mead and light should be held at regular intervals so that farmers and
villagers did not sink too deeply into gloom. Christmas, of course, became
such a feast, but there were many pre-Christian celebrations of light in
darkness at the turn of the year. In the nineteenth century the festival of
St. Lucia , the bringer of light and help, was revived and held on December
13th.
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On December 14th
there was a concert in St. Mary's to celebrate the North. Most of the music
was live and all of it from
Scandinavia, with stories, poems and sagas ranging
from
Greenland to southern
Denmark. These countries, all
with small populations, not only have an outstanding literary and dramatic
tradition stretching back to the sagas, the first prose literature of
Europe, but have also produced composers of such
stature as Sibelius, Grieg and Nielsen. And today, throughout
Scandinavia, both traditional music and pop are vital
and creative, famous world-wide.
The money we made
went to mission giving.
In the
fierce darkness of a northern night
The sweet light
Of a candle strikes
Transcendental glory from the snow
Making the blackness
bright.
Patricia
Hutchinson
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