Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr
Memorial December 13th

you did not hide your light under a basket,
but let it shine for the whole world,
for all the centuries to see.
We may not suffer torture in our lives the way you did,
but we are still called to let the light of our Christianity
illumine our daily lives.
Please help us to have the courage
to bring our Christianity into our work, our recreation, our relationships, our conversation
every corner of our day. Amen

Prayer to Saint Lucy of Syracuse patroness of the blind and of eye problems

Relying
on Your goodness, O God, we humbly ask You, through the intercession of
Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr, to give perfect vision to our eyes, that
they may serve for Your greater honor and glory.
Saint Lucy, hear our prayers and obtain our petitions. Amen
https://www.carasantalucia.it/preghiere/preghiere_en.htm .

Origins

St. Lucy/Lucia is one of few saints celebrated by the overwhelmingly Lutheran Scandinavian peoples (Danes , Swedes , Finns and NorwegiansGermanicmidwinter elements, and the practices associated with the day, predates the adoption of Christianity in Scandinavia, and is like much of Scandinavian folklore, and even
religiosity today, based on the annual struggle between light and
darkness. ). The St. Lucy's Day celebrations retain many indigenous pagan, pre-Christian
The Nordic observation of St. Lucy is first attested in the Middle Ages, and continued after the Protestant Reformation in the 1520s and 1530s, although the modern celebration is only about
200 years old. It is likely that tradition owes its popularity in the
Nordic countries to the extreme change in daylight hours between the
seasons in this region.
The pre-Christian holiday of Yule , or jól, was the most important holiday in Scandinavia and Northern Europe. Originally the observance of the winter solstice , and the rebirth of the sun, it brought about many practices that remain in the Advent and Christmas celebrations today. The Yule season was a time for feasting, drinking,
gift-giving, and gatherings, but also the season of awareness and fear of the forces of the dark .
 

Sweden A girl in the Lucia procession in Sweden, 2007

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 18th century 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 woman with candles in her hair appearing on the morning of
the Lucia day started in the area around Lake Vänern in the late 18th century and spread slowly to other parts of the country during the 19th century.
In the Lucia procession in the home depicted by Carl Larsson in 1908, 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
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy%27s_Day

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December 13, 1805 - August 6, 1879

Johann von Lamont
  Earth's Magnetic Field Google Videos
Johann von Lamont was a Scottish-born German astronomer noted for
discovering that the magnetic field of the Earth fluctuates with a
10.3-year activity cycle, but does not correlate it with the period of
the sunspot cycle.

Magneticosphere - Earth's Magnetic Field Crystalinks

Earth's Magnetic Field Wikipedia


One of the most fascinating natural phenomena on Earth
is the flipping of its magnetic field, which

has occurred hundreds of times in the last 160 million years.


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