Today is a good day to be in Sweden.

I happened to spend one December 13 in Sweden, on which day I thought that I’d died and gone to budget backpacker heaven. Initially unbeknownst to me, I had stumbled into Stockholm on Saint Lucia Day, a feast holiday celebrated in Scandinavia, Italy and the Balkans.

Swedes mark the festival by eating a traditional saffron bun, the Lussekatt, which were in complementary abundance on each shop counter. I’m not ashamed to admit that it was “shop till you drop” meets “all you can eat” for me that day – although the “shopping” was much more of the window / browsing variety!

Like St. Petersburg and Venice, Stockholm is a city spread across an archipelago, and I spent the rest of the afternoon on island of Djurgården at Skansen. The world’s oldest open-air museum, Skansen is really a must-see. It depicts the Nordic rural architecture and social conditions throughout pre-industrial Sweden from the 16th to early 20th centuries. From the Sami camp of the far north right down to the Skåne farmstead of the south, about 150 dwellings are exhibited, the majority of which date from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Most importantly, the girl crowned the national annual St. Lucia is brought by horse-drawn carriage to Skansen on December 13, where there is a celebration and fireworks display. Accompanied by a crown of candles, a choir of girls in white and a catchy tune, the St. Lucia and her parade are really quite charming, illuminated by the warm glow of candles.