Sweden uses tradition, technology to banish dark

By Sarah Edmonds and Johan Sennero

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - On Wednesday, girls across Sweden took part in an age-old celebration of light. They donned white robes tied with red sashes, settled crowns of candles on their heads, and served their families coffee.

Meanwhile, at a white-walled, white-floored cafe in a trendy Stockholm neighborhood, two dozen white-clad Swedes started the day with a more 21st century method of banishing the winter dark -- basking in scientifically simulated daylight.

Light is a preoccupation in this Nordic nation, and in the rest of Scandinavia; and for good reason.

In the north, polar night reigns for much of December. And even in Sweden's south, with up to seven official hours of daylight on the shortest day of the year, the sun is often masked by low clouds and never pushes far past the horizon.

Swedes equip themselves for the dark. Dog leashes, baby carriages and horse blankets glow with reflectors or florescent tape and fabric. Restaurants burn small fires outside.

The Lucia Day light festival once appropriately took place on the year's darkest day. According to Folklore expert Bengt af Klintberg, its date is a vestige of the discarded Julian calendar, which set the Winter Solstice on December 13. When Sweden moved to the Gregorian calendar, December 13 stuck.

During the celebration, each Swedish town and school chooses a long-haired girl to wear the candlelit crown of Santa Lucia, patron saint of the blind. Lucia is from the Italian for light.

Klintberg said the tradition began in the west in the 18th century and spread throughout Sweden.

"Swedes are very fond of lighting candles in the winter ... because it creates such a fine atmosphere. When you have darkness outside and lights burning on the table, it makes winter cozier than it would be otherwise," he said.

Klintberg said that while the onset of electricity allowed easy illumination in the dark months, electric light did not offer the comfort of candles, or what he called "living light".

"Around the mid-20th century, there was an explosion of traditions that have to do with old-time light," he said.

HIGH-TECH SOLUTIONS

The modern era offers comforts for real sufferers, though.

Arne Lowden, sleep researcher at the National Institute for Psychosocial Medicine in Stockholm, said 11 percent of Swedes have some form of winter depression, and 8 percent full-blown Seasonal Affective Disorder.

The best SAD treatment is light therapy, which doctors can prescribe with special lamps in the home or at clinical centers.