St Lucia in Denmark

Lucia was a young Christian woman of Syracuse in Sicily who was martyred under Diocletian, and she is the patron saint of Syracuse and of the blind. Her name links to lux, the Latin for light. Before Denmark's calendar reform of 1700, the night before her feast was the longest of the year, and the National Museum of Denmark notes that it left many traces in folk tradition.

The English Wikipedia, citing Kristeligt Dagblad, says the first Danish Lucia was celebrated in 1944 at the National Scala in Copenhagen, on the initiative of the head of the Nordic association Foreningen Norden, as a way to spread light during the war. The Danish Wikipedia puts a procession a year earlier, in 1943 at Th. Langs Skoler in Silkeborg, which a local photographer recorded in his ledger. The National Museum says only that the custom took hold in the years right after the occupation.

Most Danish churches hold a Lucia procession as a yearly local event, and schools and kindergartens mark the day too. The Danes sing the same melody as the Swedes, and the usual Danish text says little about faith beyond the saint's name. The priest Holger Lissner wrote a church version, Sankta Lucia, in 1982. Lucia Day falls on Sunday 13 December in 2026, which is also the third Sunday of Advent.