Saint Lucia's Day

One of the best Lucia Day processions and singing takes place in the town library, and when I worked there I was nearly always there to see it.
Last year the procession was cancelled (Covid) and this year the library event was hardly advertised at all.  I asked about it on the Library's web page and was answered that it was on at 07:15 in the morning.  
I am not a morning person but for Lucia I could push my limits so Janet woke herself, then me, at 06:10, a couple of minutes before the radio alarm came to life, and an hour later we were in town, in the library and sitting on the front row!
The singers are around 20 years-old and come from the local music college, with many of them aiming to enter the music profession. The singing was suitably beautiful but it was hard to get a good photograph, so I'm sending you on to the Swedish TV broadcast from another part of Sweden this morning. Click on the link and then click on "Spela" (Play)! The whole program is 59 minutes but you get a very good feeling for the effect after just 5 minutes. In the early days of the Scandinavian Christian church the 13 December was considered Midwinter's Day, before calendars got adjusted, which makes the symbolism around light and dark even more powerful.
After the library we went to a local cafe where we the first customers of the day. They hadn't even brewed the coffee! We hung around there until the shops opened and then let the working day begin!
The picture is taken on the way to the cafe. All the main streets of town are lined with outdoor candles laid out by the association of local business. It looks spectacular as we drive in to town in the dark, but there has never been time to stop and take a picture, so this post-dawn version will have to do.
Winter is a beautiful time, much loved by Jan and I, but this picture also shows icy pavements and gravel, one of the less romantic aspects of winter!