Sunday, December 10 2023 was SVEA 253’s Lucia celebration at the Indianapolis Latvian Community Center. In the warm glow of the candlelight, just under 200 of our members, friends and family came together to welcome light into the darkest part of winter.
Lucia Day is one of Sweden’s most beloved holidays, and this night proved why. We enjoyed glögg and coffee before dinner. We also had time to peruse the raffle table and drop tickets in the jars of our favorite items.
The delicious Julboard was, once again, catered by Cloud Nine Cuisine from Noblesville and included the traditional meal of Swedish meatballs with lingonberriers, spiral ham, herring, hard-boiled eggs, knäkebrod with butter, green beans, peas & carrots, boiled potatoes and dinner rolls.
We nearly doubled our Lucia processional from last year with 19 kids participating this year and our Lucia was the lovely Gretchen Schaller. All of the kids did such a great job, they really did bring light to the darkest part of winter with their smiling faces. A special thanks goes to Crystal Kramer for her leadership and vision. This processional was stunning.
The music both at check in and throughout the evening was provided by Skandilocity, with a special guest to SVEA’s very own Annette Johansson and our pianist Diane Haines and of course SVEA 253’s very own SVEA Singers.
Dessert was served shortly after the processional, and it was a delicious rice pudding with raspberry sauce. Our Lucia was presented her Lucia pendant and thanked for being this year’s bearer of light. The raffle winners were selected by Kiersten King and the winners went home with some amazing baskets!
Luciafest wouldn’t be what it is without a visit from the Jultomte. After a wonderful story read by Crystal Kramer, Jultomte watched as the children learned a couple traditional dances and then he handed out handmade goodies and candies to all the children.
At the close of the evening, tables were moved to make room for dancing, and Dans Norden instructed our guests on a few traditional group dance numbers.
This year was certainly one for the books. With our largest attendance, we were glad to have a professional photographer on hand to capture all of our favorite moments. Should you want to revisit the evening and see more (high res) photos, please visit: https://svea253.pixieset.com/stlucia2023/
We hope everyone has a great holiday season and look forward to seeing you at the SVEA 253 events in 2024!
Billie King
Lucifest Committee
Assistant Cultural Leader