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Prior to the Gregorian calendar reforms of the late 16th century, the Winter Solstice occurred around December 13, which coincided with the Feast Day of St. Lucy, a young virgin of Syracuse, Sicily who, prior to her martyrdom in 304 during the Diocletian Persecution, is said to have brought food and other aid to Christians hiding underground, wearing a wreath equipped with candles to light her way while leaving her hands free to serve more effectively.
As Christianity spread into northern Europe, Saint Lucy and her Feast Day became especially popular in Scandanavian regions, where the symbolism associated with light prevailing in spite of the overwhelming darkness resonated in that land of long winter nights.
The song Santa Lucia has decidedly sunnier origins: the traditional folk song of Naples, Italy was translated from the Neapolitan dialect into modern Italian by Teodoro Cottrau in the mid 19th century and subsequently published in the form of a barcarolle (literally a “bark carol” or “boat song’), the type of air supposedly sung by Venetian gondoliers as they navigate that city’s famous canals.
Lyrics have been multiplied and adapted to suit the locale and occasion, but the first verse is most commonly given as follows:
Sul mare luccica l’astro d’argento.
Placida è l’onda, prospero è il vento.
Sul mare luccica l’astro d’argento.
Placida è l’onda, prospero è il vento.
Venite all’agile barchetta mia,
Santa Lucia! Santa Lucia!
Venite all’agile barchetta mia,
Santa Lucia! Santa Lucia!
On the sea glitters the silver star
Gentle the waves, favorable the winds.
On the sea glitters the silver star
Gentle the waves, favorable the winds.
Come into my nimble little boat,
Saint Lucy! Saint Lucy!
Come into my nimble little boat,
Saint Lucy! Saint Lucy!
Quite ironically, the Feast Day of St. Lucy is also associated with a very dark and not-so-placid event: the infamous St. Lucia’s Flood of the late thirteenth century. On the day after St. Lucia's Day in 1287 a mammoth low pressure system that coincided with high tide caused the North Sea to rise up over the protective sea walls and dikes, overflowing a large portion of the Netherlands. The catastrophic inundation, which wiped out entire villages and is estimated to have killed between 50,000 and 80,000 people, quickly eroded the low-lying terrain and transformed what had been a region of fertile peatland in the midst of a complex network of estuaries and freshwater lakes into a permanent inlet of the sea – the Zuiderzee, as the Dutch thereafter called it. But, in fulfillment of the saying that “it is an ill wind that blows nobody good,” one long-standing consequence was that the previously landlocked village of Amsterdam now found itself enviously situated upon the leeward side of a fine harbor, and arose almost overnight from insignificance to become one of the leading ports and trading centers of Europe – indeed, of the world.
BONUS:
I’m fairly certain that both Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte were intentionally alluding to “Santa Lucia” when they created the beautifully serene aria “Soave sia il vento” for the opera “Cosi Fan Tutte.” To begin with, the opera is set in Naples, from which the folk song originated. The aria’s lyrics share much in common with those of the original folk song (both in terms of overall theme and several notable individual words), and there are melodic similarities between the two as well. (Mozart’s melody might even be said to be a loose variation on the original tune: the opening phrase of each follows the same distinctive melodic arc – beginning on the 5th, up to the octave, then settling down on the 7th – and there is further evidence that the same melodic framework is being employed.)
