#and lussekatts are really good

[clatterbane]

Reminded again of how unused to a bunch of Christian holidays popping up, even in a mostly very secularized form these days.

That's coming from what limited exposure I did get growing up being to the less objectionable side of decidedly low church Protestantism. Half my family's nominally Methodist (after major missionizing efforts in our region, back I'm the day), and that's about as fancy as it gets. They still kinda-sorta have Lent, and put on pancake suppers every year. A lot of the rest of it? Not so much.

The Anglicans did split off early enough that there's still more of that sort of thing on a cultural level in the UK. But, then I got to Sweden. These extremely secularized culturally ingrained Lutherans really are not fucking around with the number and variety of religious holdover public holidays. Hell, they've got Christ the Aviator! (As Mr. C anglicizes it.)

I am admitting to some pretty serious ignorance here, but I don't know when most of these "not Christmas or Easter" days happen until I see them on a calendar, or what exactly the background is behind most of them. They are often good excuses to get off work--and even failing that, to eat particular pastries and such. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also can't help but think of one occasion when my mom was doing a crossword, and resorted to asking my dad for help with one clue about some religious holiday that might fit into the space. "Why are you asking me? I was raised Baptist!" (Not that it took, like at all.) But yeah, it really is like that.

And I should maybe pick up a little more background knowledge while I'm chowing down on pastries. And also turn out some lussekatter pretty soon, since I don't know who may be selling decent GF ones. Good thing we do have the stand mixer for dough now.

[ianasha]

St. Lucia

The 13th of December is the day of St. Lucia (Saint Lucy). She was a girl from Sicily, who was killed during the persecutions of the christians in the 300's. She is a well established saint in the Catholic and Orthodox church - but she is also very popular in Scandinavia and the nordics.

The Nordic Lucia

Lucia is presented a little differently in the nordic countries, and she is especially important to Sweden. Here she is shown as a young girl with long blonde hair, a white gown and most importantly - a crown with burning candles. She carries a tray of unique buns called "Lussebulle" or "lussekatt" made with saffron - the world's most expensive spice!

It is normal to have a small parade called "Luciatog" led by a girl chosen to portray Lucia, which is quite the honor and many girls (and boys!) hope to be chosen each year. She is given Lucia's crown and gives Lussekatts to the people the parade visits. They also sing a song dedicated to this day. In Sweden they even have a bigger "crowning" of a main Lucia in the cities.

There is also a lot of interesting stuff around how she has been mixed with several other christian and pagan characters, like Lucifer, Lilith, Christkindchen, Huldra and Lussi

[tracingpatternswrites]

That's such a long journey!!!! 😫😫😫

I'm feeling all festive and would love some overseas inspiration.

What does your perfect Christmas dinner look like? Or are there any foodie traditions around Christmas you would care to share?

🧡🧡🧡

Hello my darling! It was a very long journey and I was so knackered yesterday that I never even got around to reply to this properly. I spent roughly 16 hours on that bus which is frankly too long to spend on any moving vehicle.

Anyway, I wanted to do this question justice which is why i never got around to answering it yesterday but yay, omg, we are coming into Christmas territory and I am so excited!

So, here are some Christmas foodie stuff I cannot live without:

Glögg - Most people translate this into mulled wine which is sort of right, but glögg actually doesn't have to be wine at all. It can be based on other alcohol or non-alcoholic drinks. The past few years I've been making my own which takes roughly 4 weeks from setting it to it being ready to pour. It's SO FKN GOOD and super-duper easy.

Lussebullar/lussekatter - A saffron bun that I love and which is traditionally eaten for St Lucia's Day but go nuts and eat it all of December.

Gingerbread - The Swedish kind! Can be bought in IKEA, I suppose, if you don't want to make them yourself. If you've never had them with blue cheese you have not lived.

Christmas ham - I'm not big on meat these days but you will have to pry the Yule ham/Christmas ham from my cold, dead hands because it is everything.

There we have it, a small selection of things I will not survive without during Christmas.

I'm really ready for December now, actually.

[corpsoir]

corp what's your favorite dessert? owo

OOOOHH it used to be a kind of chocolate cake thats really common here but idk what its called in english 💀 its called kladdkaka in swedish, basically its a gooey chocolate cake but the outside is kinda crispy?? might be called sticky chocolate cake? idk if its the same thing though. you eat with either icecream or whipped cream! but since i no longer eat eggs or milk i havent had it in a good while and i havent learned how to bake anything vegan except lussekatter and cinnamon buns HEH

[redrabbitspod]

Have you tried making saffron buns? They’re like a Swedish/Norwegian traditional Christmas thingy that’s really really good n there’s raisins in the middle. They’re called Lussekatter because we eat them around St Lucia day (Lusse) n they look like kitties that are curled up (katter). Sorry,,, that other ask just reminded me of them.

I haven’t tried to make these, but there’s a bakery in New York called Fabrique that I spent too much fucking money in when I lived there and they made really good saffron buns. -A

[dietraumerei]

Weekly Writing and Reading Update

Fun Sunday stuff: the eczema on my hands is doing better! My skin’s still all weird and flaky and itchy, but the cream seems to be working, and it’s only been a few days. I’m still wearing fingerless mitts like 23 hours a day, because I compulsively pick at myself at the best of times. Honestly, that’s probably helping just as much, but not gonna argue. Also I own...a lot of fingerless mitts, so it’s nice to get use out of them.

I made Lussekatter and they turned out perfectly but also my fitbit decided that kneading dough is a really really hard work-out. (It is not. It really isn’t. I don’t know what my heart rate was doing but...it isn’t.) So I have sort of bonus exercise points for today, which I shall not quibble with, especially since I lugged some very heavy groceries home too. And went on a very unsatisfying hike yesterday in a crowded AF park. Now I know which bits to avoid, at least.

(And finally I just have to say -- bombas actually are that comfortable. I am so angry that my instagram ads are right. (They are also right about cuup bras for the record, holy shit those are so comfy too.) I...was not aware that I could enjoy wearing socks but welp HERE WE ARE. They are worth every penny and I am probably going to replace my very sturdy but uh...less comfortable other socks. Srs, the hype is real.

Anyway, thanks instagram for all the extremely good targeting I guess. My compliments to your data scientists or whatever.)

Writing

reversebang: what it says on the tin. Got a good chunk done on this, and feeling a bit more on-schedule. I’ll be glad to have off from work and be able to spend a few hours a day writing again.

castleTerraChristmas: this WAS going to be a cute little short story. This IS 11k words and counting, and it Somft and Comforting and Adorable and...isn’t stopping anytime soon. I’m maybe 3/4 done? It’ll be done by Christmas, at least!

spaceStation: okay really I think I just edited this. Urgh. I want to write, but I have limited time between this and that. I have the 24th through the 3rd off, so I am excited to read and write and spin and knit and do lovely things for 11 days straight and NOT WORK. I like my job, but gosh I need some time to just write.

Reading

Heh, I’m awkwardly in the middle of three things right now, although one is on the verge of being a DNF because it’s pissing me off. It gets a few more pages to try, and then I’m fucking off to something else. Maybe next week!

[castielscarma]

Focaria

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25597657 Rating: M Words: 3.7k Summary:  Castiel tries to bake bread. It goes horribly wrong. Castiel is still angry as he tosses the keys on the small table in the hall and toes off his shoes. Work had been stressful but that he could handle. He could even handle incompetent people fighting him every step of the way but what has his blood boiling is Chuck Shurley. He's from upper management and has only been on the job for a couple of weeks, yet he ignores Castiel in everything. Castiel is used to leading his team, getting things done, and presenting facts to his bosses. Not only does Chuck ask for numbers and the latest about the projects; he then turns around and does the exact opposite. The thought of the latest verbal exchange between them has Castiel fuming. It's not even that he's pissed about Chuck's attitude – many of the big shots he's met pretend they know everything, but they at least listen and do what's right in the end. Castiel still gets paid but he's furious that he and his team has to do all that extra work and the long hours for fucking nothing. He stalks over to the fridge and yanks it open. He considers going for the beer but decides against it. What he really wants is to go back and tell Chuck he's a fucking asshole. Castiel exhales and decides to do one of the things that really relaxes him. He goes to the bedroom and removes his tie. He unbuttons his shirt and tosses it over a chair before quickly losing his dress pants. Poking his head into the closet, he grabs a pair of comfortable, well-worn jeans and a more casual blue shirt. Going back to the kitchen, he grabs a small, worn notebook. He doesn't remember it being quite that worn, but it has been some time since he's used it. It's leather-bound and almost every page is filled with notes. Everything from homemade chili, the Swedish Christmas buns known as lussekatter, a killer barbecue sauce, and cabbage soup. His grandmother Amara had been an eccentric old lady and had traveled all over the world in her RV. Every dish that made her 'feel like the darkness has taken over' she wrote down. Castiel never inquired on what exactly that meant and how it related to food. He only ate what she cooked and nodded in appreciation while she was alive. Castiel thinks that he'll maybe do the Wiener schnitzel. Amara got the recipe from an Austrian lady that helped her hunt down a rabbit that had stolen her favorite shoe. She had lamented over the fact that Amara had insisted on releasing the rabbit after the shoe was found as she'd wanted to turn the rabbit into dinner. Amara had been steadfast and the old Austrian lady had cooked a Wiener schnitzel instead that was to die for. It had left such an impression that Amara finally convinced the lady to give her the recipe. Castiel wonders if all her recipes came with a story like that. He wishes that he 'd asked her when she was alive. All he can do now to honor her is to cook her food. Making the schnitzel involves a hammer and lots of pounding until the meat is thin. It is a good option and one that will give him an opportunity to beat out some aggression but Castiel is not in the mood to make a full meal. A good schnitzel demands potatoes and sauce and he just wants to be lost in the art of cooking, not necessarily eating. Read the rest here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25597657

[odinspattern]

I was so excited to go to bed on «time» for once, before I remembered that I had papers to correct. Which I was supposed to do on Friday but forgot in the bustle. Fortuneatly my students are really great and have few mistakes, but still had to correct up to five papers.

Also today? Has been so good. I washed my towels, started reading a new book, baked lussekatter, had discussions on the internet, made the best smoothie ever and while I didn’t get to go on that walk I wanted, I did vaccum the floors.

So yeah. Today was good.

[meteor752]

A Swedish Christmas

So now that Christmas time is near and I’m officially out on the internet doing shit, I’ve come to realize how strange my countries traditions are, compared to for example Americans.

I am Swedish, which I’ve mentioned a few times and it says “Swedish” in the title so it’s hard to miss, and our beloved cold country is really weird around Christmas.

Now, I am aware of the fact that other countries do weird stuff too, but I only know these traditions and I know that they are ridiculous. So let me take you through the Christmas here in good ol’ Sweden, my dear American and everything else (I’m not going to ramble up 189 different countries).

Oh, and before we start, Christmas in Sweden is Jul, just so ya know.

So in September (Yes, you read that right, September) stores start selling a drink called Julmust. Julmust is honestly a pretty bland drink that mostly tastes like water with a bit of sugar and darkness, but everyone loves it and drinks tons of it every Christmas. This exact drink is also sold around easter, where it’s called Påskmust, and there’s no difference between the two but it’s still sold as two different drinks.

When December finally rolls around and you’ve drunk this drink for three months and are already sick of it, you buy a choklad Kalender. A choklad Kalander is a piece of cardboard with a picture on a santa and a reindeer most of the time, and inside it is the worst chocolate you will ever taste, and you eat one piece of it for 24 days.

They also start showing the Jul Kalender, where they play a ten-minute episode of a show consisting of 24 episodes until Christmas eve, with a nowadays horribly written story and the worst child acting you will ever find. Call me nostalgic, but it was better when I was a kid. This year Jul Kalander is how kids have stopped believing in Santa because the parents dress up like him instead, so the current Santa has to make everyone believe in him again, together with his wife who is played by Swedish Kris Jenner and the two kids both with Jul themed names.

This is also the time when you start baking, and god we bake a lot.

There’s Lussekatter, a bun formed like an S that consists of 90% saffron and if you would ask me tastes horrible, Havreflarn that makes you mouth drier than the Sahara, Knäck that you always fail with doing so it’s either so hard that it will crack your teeth or so soft that it gets stuck in the paper and Skumtomtar. If you have ever gone to a school ever, you have probably eaten about a hundred Skumtomtar each Christmas because they are cheap and small, so ever teacher hands them out all the time.

And then there’s Lucia. Lucia is probably the weirdest tradition we have here, and the reason I wanted to make this post. It is taken from Italy (What???), and I won't go too deep but basically on the 13th December everyone dresses in white nightgowns and sing about Jesus.

Alright I will go a little deeper than that, though it might sound confusing.

So in a Lucia tåg (Which it is called), there are three traditional roles. 

The Tärna is what the girls are. A tärna has the nightgown, they have glitter in their hair and around their waist and they hold a candle in their hand. Simple, right???

The boys are Stjärngossar. A Stjärngosse also has the nightgown, though instead of glitter they have a cone with three stars on their head, and a star on a flower stick in their hand. They also have a specific song called “Staffan Var En Stalledräng” that has nothing to do with them.

In front of all the Stjärngossarna and Tärnorna is the Lucia, often a blonde girl (Though the real Lucia was dark-haired, but nowadays they always have bright hair). The Lucia has the nightgown as well, but on the top of her head there’s a crown of candles and around her waist a red band that is supposed to represent blood, because lore.

(I have to show a picture, because this all sounds ridiculous)

Yeah sometimes there are Santa’s and Gingerbread’s in it too, but not usually. Also The Stjärngossarna are supposed to wear gowns and the Tärnorna are supposed to wear glitter around their waist, but this was the best picture I could find.

Now, what do the Lucia tåg do, you might ask? Well they wake up at 5 AM in the morning, walks around the neighborhood with a tray of Lussekatter and glögg, aka warm juice that tastes disgusting to me, knock on doors and starts to sing maybe like one or two songs, offer the people a Lussekatt and continue their walk.

This is the weirdest shit I can think of, and also why I love my country so god damn much.

So now Lucia’s behind us, and it’s finally Christmas Eve!

Actually no, let’s talk about the 23rd first. On the 23rd, the entirety of Sweden is sitting in their living rooms and playing Bingo on TV, for whatever reason! After that is over, instead of leaving out milk and cookies to Santa, we leave a bowl of Porridge and some Julmust. 

Christmas eve starts out with breakfast where we eat porridge and rhyme to it. Yes, we make rhymes about our porridge. And we are not yet done with the Porridge, nope! In the Porridge we put an almond, and whoever gets the almond gets married the next year. Yeah, we actually do this! We also dip the darkest bread you will ever find in a big saucepan of Hambroth, and then eat it! It’s disgusting I tell you, but tradition!!!

At 3 PM we watch Donald Duck, which is a bunch of Disney Clips that is shown every year since the 1960s, so the clips are really old with really bad quality, and they aren’t in Swedish so a man voices over all the lines in the most monotone voice I’ve ever heard. And you can’t even suggest Skipping Donald Duck, that is fucking tradition and everyone hates you if you do. 

As soon as Donald Duck’s over you eat your god damn Christmas food and drink the Julmust, and after it you just sit around and wait for Santa. Yeah, you heard that right, Santa barges in on December the 24th! And from what I can tell (It’s hard to research this), we’re the only one who does this.

So ayways, some dad or grandpa will say “Well, I have to go buy some milk/newspaper” and it’s always those two. Two minutes later a half-drunk Santa comes in with a weird accent and delivers present after present slowly because the man who acts out Santa pretends to not being able to read for ten seconds and mispronounces your name on purpose, before leaving. 

I’m sorry, but what exactly happened to Santa when he came to Sweden? In every other country he’s like a spy that sneaks into houses and leaves after a millisecond on his magical sleigh with his magical reindeers and yaay!

 Did Santa get stopped by the cops or something the first time he came here?? Or what??

After the presents are opened, all the extended family goes home and you go to bed, and wake up on Christmas day like it’s a normal fucking Sunday. We don’t actually celebrate The 25th here folks, we ignore it! We’re all drunk at this point, either on adrenalin because you can play with your new toys! or on Alcholhol because we drink a lot here.

So yeah, that is Christmas in Sweden, gosh I love my country.

[goingorthodox]

don’t steal magic and memories from your little children- these are things they can never get back Don’t be a grinch, let them have a real Christmas with Santa and all that good ol’ holiday stuff (Better see the waster bunny this year too)

The Easter bunny we definitely don’t do because it doesn’t fit into our Easter celebrations at all. They don’t get individual Easter baskets and we don’t hide the eggs they’re bright red for crying out loud. I frequently forget the Easter bunny is a thing, and am genuinely confused for a second when I walk into stores and see bunnies everywhere, especially when Pascha might not be for another four weeks. No. No Easter bunny, that’s not even on the radar. But our kids wake up on St. Lucia day and see their mother wearing a crown of candles and we sing the St. Lucia song as we eat Lussekatter. We all go together to buy a real tree on the Feast of St. Herman of Spruce Island. They hang up handmade stockings on December 18th to find St. Nicholas has filled them, and we go to Liturgy and then have chocolate for breakfast and have speculaas all day. They hear stories from our Jesse tree book and hang ornaments on our Jesse tree. They see us read from the Scriptures by candlelight and the Advent wreath glow brighter and brighter as we get closer to Christmas. We read Christmas stories together under blankets all December. Every Monday (my day off) we have pancakes together and watch a movie and in December they’ll see plenty of Christmas movies, even The Polar Express every Christmas Eve with Hot Chocolate. They get Christmas presents on Western Christmas at their Grandparents and on Nativity. The house gets blessed with Theophany water in January. We’re there for the burning of the badnjak every year. Just because someone doesn’t tell their kids Santa is really slipping down their (non existent in our case) chimney doesn’t mean they’re not making memories. 

[paperandsong]

Secret Santa here, just dropping by to say thank you for the quality Lucia content yesterday! 🕯 Hope you had a beautiful Lucia day and that your week is off to a good start!

Aw thanks! I hope you had a lovely Lucia day too. I ate a lot of lussekatter - I did a better job than last year. I am neither Swedish nor Catholic, but I think her story is really powerful and I like incorporating her day into my calendar.

[tearsofsyrup]

Hello Vi! Essays are the best! I’m glad you were able to type so much! I truly love it! I really hope you get snow :(. We currently have no snow here, but have the cold temperatures :/. I don’t mind the cold if the snow comes with it.. A heavy snow is so great because it feels like the world is quiet, I don’t know if you get that feeling too, but it’s so peaceful. I really really hope you get your snow! I always thought of Sweden as a cold place so I was surprised to hear you didn’t get any.

I'm sorry I have to send two asks 😅// What’s your favorite treat to eat? Also can I just say I find you absolutely adorable XD. I think you’re so cute! I like it when it snows. but I like big snows, where you’re snowed in and can’t leave the house. That’s my favorite thing about winter, but we haven’t had one of those in a long time so I’m hoping for one this year :). I would love it! I also really love hot chocolate and in winter you can drink it without getting weird looks XD. - CWC Friend.

hello, friend! 😊

yes, i know exactly what you mean! snow makes everything so quiet and serene and peaceful and ugh... i really want snow this winter... and right?! sweden is supposed to be cold and stuff, where ma snow at??! 😠

oooh, my favorite treat? i’m such a sweet tooth so, that list is not a short one for me hehe... for christmas, i love the gingerbread cookies we make, and knäck (i think butterscotch in english), and lussekatter (saffron buns with raisins), and the date cakes my mom makes every year. and obviously all the chocolate too 😋 and a MUST HAVE for christmases in sweden is julmust, a soft drink. it’s so good!! cinnamon buns are more than welcome during christmas too and hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows is just *chef’s kiss* amazing! what about you, what are your favorite treats?

and no, you are cuter!! 🤗

[norsesuggestions]

Any good stories about the St. Lucia thing?

There are!

When one sing in the lucia celebration one hold live candles in ones hands. WELL because many are nervous while doing so, they sometlmes forget themselves and hold the candles too close to mouth.

Then! One will pass out. Not enough oxygen… ANYWAY this meant, that when the 9 year olds had their big lucia performance in my school every year, and all were holding irl candles in their hands, adults would about every second year need to RUN into the performance hand hold up some kid, who were getting wobbly on their feet. Least we would all be put on fire..

I mean it is pretty wild thinking back on. And like, no accident ever happened while i went to school there SOMEHOW too?

Another fun thing is that lucia wear a crown of REAL LIVE CANDLES. They are long candles tho. And we just let literal nine year walk around with that…. like 7 candles i think it is. That lucia balance on their head while they sing.

for some reason this event really make swedes lose all feeling for fire safety haha. And I find that pretty fun.

Also during lucia the singers give you free lussekatter and they be a nice good bun. Like eating it.

Also, the 20th century writer of the song “sankta lucia” just made up some fake old fashioned swedish in it. The fuck is “tunga fjät” ? Its nonsense lol. Also sound like “heavy farts” which i promise you we 9 year olds song all the time during the practice with much joy.

“The night walks, HEAVY FARTS”

That some classic elementary school humour that really, somehow is still, vaguelly amusing. It like the swedish memes for the 9 years olds

Some of these incorrect lyrics, sung be all swedish school kids when we are freaking DONE with Saint Lucy sing practice. From memory some snippets:

“Natten går tunga fjärt” [The nights walks heavy farts]

“Sankta lucia ge mig en tia, tian var trasig…” [Saint Lucy give me 10 kr, the 10 kr were broken]

[phorusrhacidae]

In the past couple days I’ve read a really good book, met a cute little all-black pug, decorated my hamster’s cage for christmas, cooked for myself quite a bit, started watching the last season of bones, drank the first glögg of the year and ate the first lussekatter. 

(but now somehow am still desperately craving candy corn, specifically the mallow pumpkins can I order them from somewhere...?) 

[indiebookbanter]

Day 12 @judelennonbooks St Lucia's Day (takes place on 13th) It’s St. Lucia’s Day in Sweden The girls are dressed in white. With a special crown of greenery And candles all alight. There’s lots of lovely food to eat. It really is good fun. Pepparkakar and Lussekatts (Ginger snaps and Lucy Buns) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5_Vz-vhJHq/?igshid=pfv1jsyf0lws

[sparksfade]

ok so,it's a winter treat that's made similarly to cinnamon buns, their names are derived from saint lucia and the swedish word for cat. which when put together becomes Lussekatt.

Oh that's sounds really good.