Lucia comes to Sweden & Boingo will be there to welcome her!

Swedish Lucia and Christmas Market - in Second Life - 2008: 12 - 13th December.

By: Swedish People in SL and funded by the Swedish Institute.

After last year's huge success, Lucia visits Second Life again in 2008!

Every year on December 13, Santa Lucia arrives in Sweden to announce the Christmas season. This year, she will once again visit Second Life as well - and the festivities start - PLEASE NOTE THE DATE!! -->>> Friday evening, December 12 <<<---

The Lucia celebration features a procession led by a woman representing Saint Lucia, who — dressed in white robes, with a headdress of candles — repels the darkness with a halo of light. The procession is accompanied by the singing of traditional Swedish songs.

The Lucia event in Second Life gives participants an opportunity to meet a real Swedish Lucia, listen to her entourage of singers, see a Christmas tree, visit Santa, visit a HUGE Christmas market (18 Swedish designers at one place!), receive Swedish freebie gifts, and dance to Swedish and international music, including live performances.



By tradition, the identity of this year's Lucia is a well-protected secret until the December 12.

When: The procession will be held twice: First, on December 12, 1pm Second Life time (4pm New York time, 10pm Stockholm time); the procession is then repeated four hours later at 5pm SLT (8pm in NYC, 2am in Stockholm on 13 December)

Where: Second House of Sweden, on the Swedish Institute - Best are to TP to orientation SIM

Organizers of this year's Lucia event in Second Life are Ika Cioc, Ewa Aska, Charlotte Rhino, Belze Fraker, Cur Waydelich and producer Tina (PetGirl) Bergman.

All residents of Second Life are very welcome to attend.
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The Lucia evening at stage:

Friday 12th December - (time in SLT)

0 pm - Junivers Stockholm - from the now so well known "The Ring" performance in SL. Junivers plays acustic live with 99% of his own material. He also does electric live with backtracks he composed and plays all instruments (drums via midi-keyboard).

1pm Lucia / Disco

2pm - Ernst Edman - One more of our famous Swedish artists in SL - he sings country - and are welcome back as we all remember him from last years succé at Lucia:-)

3pm Grace McDunnough - Grace is an artist, musician and virtual world experience developer. Creator of Musimmersion, founder of the Mill Pond Folk Festival and regularly performing live musician in the virtual world of Second Life, Grace is dedicated embracing virtual worlds to combine the emotional response of audio and visual immersion to deliver unique experiences around the grid.

4pm - Ayden Kruh - Ayden is a musician and a mystic at heart. He approaches life with an open mind, firmly rooted in his identity. As a singer/songwriter, he combines new folk/americana influences with neo-soul vocal melodies to share his take on life, love, faith, pain, ect.

5pm - Lucia 2 / Disco until the sun are seen again... a long night to come!
***** More about Lucia from wikipedia *****
Lucia in Sweden.,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lucia_Day

Some trace the "re-birth" of the Lucia celebrations in Sweden to the tradition in German Protestant families of having girls dressed as angelic Christ children, handing out Christmas presents. The Swedish variant of this white-dressed "Kindchen Jesus", or Christkind, was called "Kinken Jes", and started to appear in upper-class families in the 1700s on Christmas Eve with a candle-wreath in her hair, handing out candy and cakes to the children. Another theory claims that the Lucia celebration evolved from old Swedish traditions of "star boys" and white-dressed angels singing Christmas carols at different events during Advent and Christmas. In either case, the current tradition of having a white-dressed lady with candles in her hair appearing on the morning of the Lucia day started in the area around Lake Vänern in the late 1700s and spread slowly to other parts of the country during the 1800s.

In Lucia procession in the home depicted by Carl Larsson in 1908 (illustration, above), the oldest daughter brings coffee and St. Lucia buns to her parents, while wearing a candle-wreath and singing a Lucia song. Other daughters may help, dressed in the same kind of white robe and carrying a candle in one hand, but only the oldest daughter wears the candle-wreath.

The modern tradition of having public processions in the Swedish cities started in 1927 when a newspaper in Stockholm elected an official Lucia for Stockholm that year. The initiative was then followed around the country through the local press. Today most cities in Sweden appoint a Lucia every year; schools elect a Lucia and her maids among the students; and a national Lucia is elected on national television from regional winners. The regional Lucias will usually visit local shopping malls, old people's homes and churches, singing and handing out ginger snaps. Recently there was some discussion whether it was suitable if the national Lucia was not a blonde Caucasian, but it was decided that ethnicity should not be a problem, and in the year 2000 an adopted non-white girl was crowned the national Lucia

There are now also boys in the procession, playing different roles associated with Christmas. Some may be dressed in the same kind of white robe, but with a coneshaped hat decorated with golden stars, called "stjärngossar" (star boys); some may be dressed up as "tomtenissar", carrying lanterns; and some may be dressed up as gingerbread men. They participate in the singing and also have a song or two of their own, usually Staffan Stalledräng, which tells the story about Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, caring for his five horses.

A traditional kind of bun, Lussekatt (St. Lucia Bun), made with saffron, is normally eaten on this day.

Although St. Lucia's Day is not an official holiday in Sweden, it is a popular occasion in Sweden. The Lucia evening and night is a notoriously noisy time. High school students often celebrate by partying all through the night.
The Swedish lyrics to the Neapolitan song Santa Lucia have traditionally been either Natten går tunga fjät (The Night walks with heavy steps) or Sankta Lucia, ljusklara hägring (Saint Lucy, Bright Illusion). There is also a modern version with easier text for children: Ute är mörkt och kallt (Outside it's dark and cold).
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Lucia 2008 in Second Life by: Swedish People in SL and funded by the Swedish Institute.