VIDEO: How Sweden celebrated Lucia in a pandemic
The annual Lucia processions, one of the high points of the Christmas season in Sweden, were cancelled this year. But that didn't stop Swedes finding ways to celebrate.
This year, December 13th, the festival of Saint Lucy or Sankta Lucia, fell on a Sunday. Normally the day is marked with choral concerts and processions of singers in churches, city centres, schools and offices, accompanied with mulled wine or coffee and saffron buns.
Here's how the celebrations were adapted.
Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden's biggest, put on a digital concert, where the singers were carefully socially distanced, as did Lund Cathedral.
Sweden's official website Sweden.se, which is run by the Swedish Institute, the tourism agency Visit Sweden, and the Swedish government live-streamed a performance put on by students at Adolf Frederik's Musikklasser, a renowned Stockholm music school.
Swedish state news channel SVT broadcast from Jukkasjärvi in Lapland, with a concert interspersed with pre-recorded segments.
Students at schools across Sweden gave socially distanced Lucia concerts on Friday. Here are the two sets of classes from Adolf Frederik's Musikklasser.
Individual families also found their own socially-distanced ways of celebrating. Here's Sweden's Prince Carl Philip, Princess Sofia, and their children Prince Alexander and Prince Gabriel celebrating the third advent weekend without their extended family.
Photo: Swedish Royal Court
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This year, December 13th, the festival of Saint Lucy or Sankta Lucia, fell on a Sunday. Normally the day is marked with choral concerts and processions of singers in churches, city centres, schools and offices, accompanied with mulled wine or coffee and saffron buns.
Here's how the celebrations were adapted.
Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden's biggest, put on a digital concert, where the singers were carefully socially distanced, as did Lund Cathedral.
Sweden's official website Sweden.se, which is run by the Swedish Institute, the tourism agency Visit Sweden, and the Swedish government live-streamed a performance put on by students at Adolf Frederik's Musikklasser, a renowned Stockholm music school.
Swedish state news channel SVT broadcast from Jukkasjärvi in Lapland, with a concert interspersed with pre-recorded segments.
Students at schools across Sweden gave socially distanced Lucia concerts on Friday. Here are the two sets of classes from Adolf Frederik's Musikklasser.
Photo: Swedish Royal Court
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