St. Lucia Celebration - RESCHEDULED DUE TO SEVERE WEATHER

Attention: this event is being rescheduled from December 12 to December 19 due to severe weather.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Celebrate the Swedish Festival of Light and the beginning of the Christmas season at the St. Lucia Celebration. 

Purchase tickets online here

1:00 - 5:00 pm Museum Activities

Arts and crafts projects, gallery exhibitions, and a display about celebrations of light from around the world

3:00 pm St. Lucia Concert

The focus of the celebration will be a St. Lucia Concert at 3:00 pm in Milliken Auditorium.  This event marks the 25th anniversary of the celebration in the Traverse City area and features a variety of performers including the flute students of Lisa Johansson, Director of Northwind Flute Studios; the acoustic group Freya (Lisa and Ingemar Johansson, Sue Wood, and Gary Cook); singer songwriters Emma Cook and Dianne and Noemi Derib; vocalist Sage DeAgro; poet bard Norm Wheeler; and guest appearance by Song of the Lakes. There will be a flute play-along of Pachelbels Canon in which area flutists are invited to join on. (Register by contacting northwindflute@hotmail.com).

The History of St. Lucia

The Santa Lucia tradition is a celebration of the passing of the darkest time of the year and the rebirth of the bright New Year. The legend of Santa Lucia dates back to the year 284 when Lucia, a young Italian girl refused to renounce her faith. Her dedication to caring for the poor of her city led her to use all her bridal dowry for their survival needs to the dismay of her husband-to-be. She was executed at the age of twenty and later declared a saint by the common people when her image appeared in the sky all across the European continent.

To this day, people in Scandinavia celebrate this occasion by having processions of the local Lucia girl and her court bringing light to audiences with candles, song, music, and food.

Tickets

Tickets are $5 for museum members and $7 for non-members and are available at www.dennosmuseum.org.  As St. Lucia is honored for being kind and helping to feed the hungry, the Dennos will be collecting canned and dry goods for the Father Fred Foundation.  Ticket buyers that bring a food donation will receive $1 off of their ticket price when tickets are purchased at the box office.  

We invite community members to participate and share the ways they celebrate the winter solstice as part of this celebration.  The displays will need to be set up Saturday, December 11, 2010 and be on display Sunday and Monday, December 12 – 13, 2010.  If you are interested in participating, please contact Diana Bolander at (231) 995-1029. 

A program for K-12 students will be offered on Monday, December 13, 2010.  Call (231) 995-1029 for more information.

This program is presented in conjunction with the Celebrating Women exhibition of photo journalist Paola Gianturco’s photography featuring festivals for women in the countries of Swaziland, Poland, India, Sweden, Brazil, and Morocco. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This programming is supported in part by a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs which includes funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
These programs were made possible in part by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these programs do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Michigan Humanities Council.  
Housing sponsors for Celebrating Women events are the Tamarack Lodge and Days Inn of Traverse City.  
Media Sponsors for Celebrating Women are TV7&4 and the Northern Express.

HOURS:
Mon-Sat 10 am - 5 pm
Sun 1 - 5 pm
Thurs - Open until 8pm
Closed on major holidays

ADMISSION:
Adults $6 Children $4
No charge to museum members and NMC students