Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/Getty Images
Today our favorite Scandinavian friends are celebrating Lucia Day, the beginning of the holiday season where traditionally a girl dons a white gown and wears a wreath of candles on her head. She sings, does charity work and takes part in the annual religious procession, becoming tärnor (Lucia’s handmaiden). A boy usually transforms himself into stjärngossar or a "star boy" wearing a white gown, a tall paper cone hat and holding stick with stars hanging from it. The whole thing is beyond magical -- we had a preview last year at the NYC event celebrating SAS airline's same-sex wedding contest.
This year the Swedes are mixing things up a little though. A debate has broken out in schools across the country of whether men should also have the right to be Lucia. Boys announced their candidacy for Lucia and won the “Lucia-elections”. Some parents protested, students then rebutted. The youth of today in Sweden are certainly trying to change tradition. Readers from a local newspaper are now proposing a “lex loke” -- or a new law that Lucia should be “gender neutral”.
Kids like this: all just another reason why Out Loves Sweden.
Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/Getty Images
Today our favorite Scandinavian friends are celebrating Lucia Day, the beginning of the holiday season where traditionally a girl dons a white gown and wears a wreath of candles on her head. She sings, does charity work and takes part in the annual religious procession, becoming tärnor (Lucia’s handmaiden). A boy usually transforms himself into stjärngossar or a "star boy" wearing a white gown, a tall paper cone hat and holding stick with stars hanging from it. The whole thing is beyond magical -- we had a preview last year at the NYC event celebrating SAS airline's same-sex wedding contest.
This year the Swedes are mixing things up a little though. A debate has broken out in schools across the country of whether men should also have the right to be Lucia. Boys announced their candidacy for Lucia and won the “Lucia-elections”. Some parents protested, students then rebutted. The youth of today in Sweden are certainly trying to change tradition. Readers from a local newspaper are now proposing a “lex loke” -- or a new law that Lucia should be “gender neutral”.
Kids like this: all just another reason why Out Loves Sweden.
