Santa Lucia

Today walking into school 15 minutes before the start of classes I found the lights dimmed and the entrance hall full of teachers and students singing, one girl with a wreath of candles on her head and passing out rolls to us as we came in.

This was a surprise.

Santa Lucia is the feast day of St. Lucy, a martyr whose feast day fell on the winter solstice by the Julian calendar (December 13th). She was thus associated in dark wintry Scandinavia with the turn of the seasons, as the days stopped growing shorter and began to lengthen, and the tradition remains. A girl wreathed in lights, saffron buns, and coffee are traditional, as is the song. It's even bigger in Sweden, where kids get at least a half day off from school.

It reminds me of living in Germany and getting a week off from university for "Pfingsten." I had no idea what that was, and my dictionary was British and unhelpfully told me "Pfingsten" was "Whitsuntide." Only later did I realize it was Pentecost.

The Norwegians do Pentecost/Pfingsten/Whitsuntide/Easter plus fifty days as well. They call it Pinse, and schools are closed both the first and second days of Pinse. With the Norwegian Constitution day on May 17th and May Day on May 1st, we don't have a lot of school in May.

And with my being obliged to take my minimum required six-week share of our parental leave this year from mid-March until the second week in May, well, I'm not going to be teaching much between my birthday and exams. Oh, well. It's so WEIRD to plan to be out a big chunk of the year like that. I'm never gone from school for more than a day at the most, ever. When I broke my leg two years ago at school, I was out a grand total of three school days - basically until the drugs wore off and I could once again pick my students out of a lineup of Teletubbies. After that I was back in an inflatable air cast (emblazoned with the sign of my secret identity - thanks Amanda!), tooling around in a wheelchair, and teaching 120% of a full load.