It is St Lucia Day on Thursday so in the small town of Askersund, the townspeople celebrate on Sunday instead. There is a small parade that goes through the entire town past the building we live in so we actually have an option to watch the parade pass by the balcony. How fun!

What is St Lucia Day, you ask?

Well, I had not been introduced to St Lucia until I came to Sweden but it is a day to celebrate in honour of St Lucia who had been persecuted for her beliefs. That's about as much as I know. Well, as much as the husband managed to explain to me on his way to the kitchen to make himself a nice Swedish sandwich.

Helpful man. Hmph..

Anyway, we decided to go down to the town square instead to watch the parade pass since we live so close to the square and we would have had to run like crazy to get a good spot. Plus the fact that we wanted to go have a look at shops which close just before the parade.

The whole square has been very charmingly set up with a huge Christmas tree lit with lights and the streets decorated with stars and leaves and some other unidentified bright thingy. The shopfronts had covered up their shopfronts and revealed their Xmas decor just a few days before. It is apparently a town tradition (Swedes have A LOT of that) and they take off the paper they stuck to the glass front of their shops on a launching day (weekend of cos. It's a whole event. Small town, catch my drift?).

The sun had set by the time we left the house at 4pm but the square was alive with people, singing, dancing santas and a mobile cafe. Yup, I saw a cafe built into a bus, equipped with a cashier counter, a wall of magazines and books and another wall filled with goodies. And in case they don't have the chance to set up the tables and chairs outside the bus, seats have been left at the back of the bus for customers to sit and enjoy their coffee, tea, chocolates, magazines and whatever else they deign to enjoy at the back of a big dark bus. Now, ironically enough, this bus had been designed and is operated by a Christian church group. For what purpose, I'm not entirely sure but it sure is interesting.

The parade started a few minutes early but we heard the choir girls singing some lovely hymns which got us running rather ungracefully down the street and squeezing our big butts through some people to get a good view of the people and animals passing by.

Did I mention the animals??

I had no idea there would be animals. Of cos the fact that we are surrounded by big fields and forests full of wild, tame animals big and small eludes this big city girl. Of cos I had expected some motorised monster of yuletide cheer and people dancing and waving. I got the waving but the dancing only came from the semi drunk santas from a half hour before and the motorised monster came in the form of a car that decided to back his car into the front of the parade so he can exit the parking lot and go home (the middle of the square is actually a parking lot and the parade circled the only street that allowed access out of this parking area. Smart design, yea?).

But no one could stop this big city girl from embarassing herself (but then again who can?) with her oohs and aahs as animal after animal passed me by. Big hunting dogs kept back by flimsy looking leashes fronted the parade followed by horses. So many horses!

Apart from the horses that we all see so often on tv (cos what other world do I know apart from the fantasy of TV right?), I had never seen horses of any other size up close and personal before. So I was very very pleased to see how tiny miniature horses can get and I saw a horse that was so huge, it must have been plucked from the farm of a Giant. And it had the honour of pulling the cart with 6 girls in white holding candles representing St Lucia. Now this animal is so enormous that I do believe, without exaggerating, it's head is about the size of Mathias's torso, and that is impressive. It is taller than Mathias and would have given me vertigo had I tried riding it. I think it must have been big enough to eat me! But due to the new husband not used to te new camera, all the pictures taken of this incredible animal is out of focus or too dark. Oh well.

To me, it was a shame that the sky was so dark during the parade but to Mathias who had been enjoying this festival since childhood, he says that the parade would not be the same with sun (I knew those fangs of his indicated something more that an anomaly). But I did wish that there was snow covering the streets and crunching from under my boots. It would have added so much more to the atmosphere.

This weekend, I am very glad to say passed much more calmly without any attempts on my life (with the help of glögg, that awful awful black drink. Which, to rub poison down the throat, is drunk warm) or o the life of my mother in law who though allergic to nuts was given hazelnut chocolates by her crazed daughter in law.

So yes, it has been a very lovely weekend, filled with random boredom and a big ass horse.