Lucia at school, part two!

So we took our show on the road yet again, this time including the traditional Lucia buns. The first graders were a somewhat more attentive audience, and although Peter has quite a following among Grace's classmates (or because he does?) he insisted on sitting on my lap during the story-reading portion. Interesting culinary note: saffron strands are not identical with powdered saffron, so the buns weren't yellow, although they were more evenly baked than the picture above suggests. I was impressed by the willingness of the kids to eat baked goods seasoned with saffron, ginger, and cinnamon - it's not an especially sweet pastry. Grace's teacher noted that the buns were an unusual shape, and I told her that the Sicilian version of the Lucia story includes Lucia's fairly dramatic response to a suitor's admiration of her beautiful eyes: she dug them out with a knife and sent them to him on a plate. So the Italian depictions of Lucia often involve her carrying her eyes around on a plate, and the buns are supposed to resemble eyes. The teacher nodded politely and agreed with me that it wasn't a detail I needed to share with the first-graders. Today is the actual date of Lucia's feast, although our continued baking and tromping over to the neighbors' with buns will have to wait until the weekend. The kids enjoy that part most of all, I think - the candle crown and the starboy wand look very cool outside in the dark. The neighbors, who are not Swedish, are always nice about helping us honor Lucia by bringing them treats.