It is not always easy being the kid of a foreigner. As much as the parent tries to blend in there are certain cultural subtleties that get lost on them. One of these things is not coming dressed appropriately at certain events that make no sense to their parent. You would think having a Norwegian dad should save you from this embarrassment but for some reason this particular dad didn’t seem to have a clue either what the appropriate Saint Lucy’s attire was.
Last year was the first year we were to participate in a Lucia parade at Kindergarten. Saint Lucy is referred to as Lucia here in the Nordic. There were mails floating around that mentioned wearing something white over their winter clothes and bringing a white t-shirt. The detail that got lost on me was that this was referring to two different events. So I bought a large white t-shirt and told my daughter to put it on for Lucia. Then we headed off to Kindergarten only to discover that everyone else was wearing white long dresses or robes over their winter dresses. Thankfully my daughter was only three so I don’t think this will leave a permanent mark on her. I was however very embarrassed and reminded that we are not from here. Thankfully we got beaten in embarrassment by another foreigner dad that had put a giant light headpiece on his son’s head. One that was even larger than what the Lucia girl was wearing.
So I promised myself to do it right this year! When we were reading a book we found a picture of an angel that was wearing a white dress with golden stripes. She said she wanted a dress like that for Lucia. So I set to work planning. I found a pattern in Ottobre that fit her measurements wearing her winter suit (158). I extended the sleeves and adjusted it a little. I bought some cheap fabric that I don’t know the English name of at Jysk (nervøs fløyel in Norwegian) and golden ribbons at Panduro. Voilà!
She seemed pretty happy with her dress after giving some feedback that she also wanted golden ribbons on the sleeves. So mom made some last minute adjustments and we headed off to the parade and even got couple of comments that it looked nice! I now feel I have set Lucia in balance again even if I still don’t have a clue what it is all about. Cannot even be bothered reading the Wikipedia page.
The pictures are very poor but as this isn’t exactly high quality work I will leave it at that for this time!
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