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Swedish people honor the Sun goddess Lucina, also known as St. Lucy, today. Girls dress in white gowns and wear garlands crowned with candles. They wake up their families with songs and a special breakfast. For this celebration, the Swedes make lussekatter, scrumptious saffron buns shaped in symbolic S-curves, figure-eights, and cats.

The name of the bread itself means "light cats" and may refer to the magical cats who pulled the chariot of Freya, another northern goddess. Celebrate today by baking lussekatter yourself (you can find the recipe online or in ethnic cookbooks), and by honoring the girls in your family. Look for the Sun in the winter sky, and greet her as well. Burn a white candle on your altar for Lucina, who brings back the light.
I thought I would share this because the week began with one of those series of emails and clippings in the inbox, that you can either let ruin your day/week, or brush off and focus on the good stuff. There is a great email in there, which is not only something useful to me, it has the nicest sentiment of being sent "to brighten my week." I was just thinking how I would like to send something brightening in return, and was stumped for ideas, when I came across this.

Light cats Looking for the sun in the winter sky. Just having a feel-good holiday without even knowing why it's celebrated anymore. Meow.