On 13 December Italy celebrates Saint Lucy, one of the country's best-loved saints. Her feast is remarkable for the variety of traditions it has generated: in some northern cities it is she, and not Father Christmas, who brings children their presents; in Sicily people eat cuccìa and give up bread and pasta; along the coasts a small object bearing her name is gathered and kept as an amulet. At the centre of it all lies a constant theme: light and sight.
Who Saint Lucy was
According to tradition Lucy was a young woman of Syracuse, martyred at the beginning of the fourth century during the persecution of Diocletian. Her cult soon spread throughout the Christian world. In Syracuse the memory of the saint is tied to the basilica of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro; her relics, after various vicissitudes, are kept in Venice, in the church of San Geremia.
The name Lucia recalls the Latin word lux, "light", and this link has deeply shaped her cult. Lucy became the protector of sight and of the eyes. In iconography she is often shown with a dish or cup on which two eyes rest.
Dante, too, gave her a prominent place: in the Divine Comedy Lucy is one of the three blessed women who, in the second canto of the Inferno, act in heaven to rescue the lost poet.
The shortest day there is
A widespread proverb says: "Santa Lucia, il giorno più corto che ci sia", "Saint Lucy, the shortest day there is". Today we know that the shortest day of the year falls around 21 December, at the winter solstice. Why then does the proverb point to the 13th?
The explanation is historical. Before the Gregorian calendar reform, introduced in 1582, the Julian calendar was in use, and over the centuries it had fallen behind the solar year. In the late Middle Ages the winter solstice therefore fell around 13 December. The proverb preserves the memory of that calendar: the feast of Lucy, the saint of light, really did coincide with the moment when daylight was scarcest.
The night of gifts
In several areas of northern Italy, including the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona, Lodi, Mantua and Verona, as well as parts of Trentino and Friuli, it is Saint Lucy who brings children their presents on the night between 12 and 13 December.
The tradition follows a precise ritual:
- Children write a little letter to the saint, listing the gifts they would like.
- On the evening of 12 December they leave something on the table or outside the door for the saint and her little donkey: hay, carrots, a little flour, sometimes a glass of wine or milk.
- They go to bed early, because the saint must not be seen: it is said that whoever looks at her risks getting ash in their eyes.
- In the morning they find the presents, together with sweets, dried fruit and mandarins.
In some versions Lucy is accompanied by a helper, the Castaldo, who carries the sacks of gifts.
Sicilian cuccìa
In Palermo and other parts of Sicily, 13 December has a special culinary tradition. For the whole day people abstain from bread and pasta and eat cuccìa, a dish of boiled wheat that can be made sweet, with ricotta or custard, or savoury.
Tradition ties this custom to an episode of famine. It is said that at a time of great hunger in the city, a ship loaded with grain reached the port on Saint Lucy's day itself. The starving population did not wait to grind the grain into bread, but boiled it and ate it as it was. Ever since, in memory of the event, whole wheat is eaten on 13 December.
On the same day arancine are also traditional, and in Palermo they are eaten in great quantities.
Saint Lucy's eye
Along the Mediterranean coasts there is a small object that popular tradition calls Saint Lucy's eye. It is the operculum of a marine mollusc, that is, the small chalky plate that closes the opening of the shell. It is round, with one smooth, domed face, often white and orange, and the other face marked by a spiral.
Its appearance, which recalls an eye, has made it a widespread amulet in coastal regions. It is worn as a pendant, set in rings or kept at home. Its value is entirely symbolic: a sign of protection linked to the saint of sight and light.
The meaning of the feast
Saint Lucy's traditions share a common core:
- light in the darkest period of the year;
- sight as a gift to be protected;
- the gift to children as a promise of abundance;
- grain as the memory of hunger overcome.
It is a threshold feast, anticipating Christmas and preparing for the return of light after the solstice.
In short
- Saint Lucy, martyr of Syracuse, is celebrated on 13 December and is the protector of sight.
- The proverb about the shortest day recalls the Julian calendar in use before 1582.
- In many northern cities it is Saint Lucy who brings children their presents.
- In Palermo cuccìa is eaten on 13 December in memory of a famine overcome.
- Saint Lucy's eye is the operculum of a mollusc, kept as an amulet.
