The reason we celebrate this saint is all but forgotten, but it's something school kids do and they dress up in white robes, hold candles or stars on sticks and sing Christmas carols. All the parents and friends come to watch and listen. Actually it isn't reserved for schoolkids and has become something of a beauty contest outside of the schools.
As far as the school celebration goes, it involves both girls and boys. Traditionally the boys dress up in white robes and hold stars mounted on sticks and the girls wear white robes too, but also wear tinsel in their hair and hold candles. The main character Lucia was always played by a girl with candles in her hair, but these days of the Swedish liberation of the sexes, a guy will do just as well. There is a debate about this in the media lately.
I remember celebrating the same tradition in the Swedish school in Botswana where I grew up. I found it a bit troubling as I grew older since the boys not only wear robes but also a cone shaped white hat. I can think of a very prejudiced American group who dress very similarly so prancing around singing songs in a foreign langauge and lighting candles may not have been as appreciated by the local Africans as it was by the proud Swedish parents.
What troubled the girl playing the main character Lucia was usually how to get the candle wax out of her hair later.
The images below are from the "Lucia" celebrations in the village we live in. Lucia's candles were fortunately battery operated.
As for the young Santas, this is a confusion between the nordic mythological gnomelike creature and Santa Claus. Not sure how the gingerbread men at the back got involved.
These little guys reminded me of the saying: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
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