On the 12th of December, the evening before St. Lucia’s day a lot of good little children gather in front of the church. It is cold. The sky is full of stars. Older boys lit the fire which should break the frost. We are looking forward to St. Lucia’s day and start to pray. After the prayer we go round the village to visit all the houses. We could hardly wait this evening. The whole year we are preparing for it. It is very special for us.
St. Lucia is patron of human eyes and sight. We thank her for that and pray her to give us healthy eyes and sight.
When we start going around the village we sing

After that song we wait till the host opens the door and give some presents to the children. It is usually an apple, nuts candies or a coin. When we receive some present we start to sing better and louder, we are happy because somebody remembers us. All our presents we share. We also make a head of a pumpkin. The content is taken out, eyes, nose and mouth are cut out on its surface, and finally the candle is put inside. The light of the candle symbolises St. Lucia and we use it to scare little children or those who don’t want to give us presents.
When we come home we put wheat in a dish which should grow by Christmas, in the middle of it we leave a hole to pit candle in it on the Christmas day. That wheat and the candle is placed on the table during the family dinner and symbolises life as the Christ himself.

Nikolina Zorkic 2E₁