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Heart and Soul St Lucia and the New Swedes St Lucia and the New Swedes

In the darkness of midwinter, Swedes come together to celebrate a saint who ushers in the light,and the Christmas season. All around the country, girls are chosen to play the coveted role of St Lucia, who wears candles in her hair and sings angelically. Lucia was martyred in 304BC for refusing to deny her Christian faith. Sweden is a largely secular place. But a few miles south of Stockholm is a town dubbed the most Christian in the country. The reason is the high number of Assyrian Christians who鈥檝e moved to S枚dert盲lje from Syria, Iraq and Turkey since the 1970s. Many were fleeing persecution because of their faith. Two in five of the town鈥檚 residents have foreign backgrounds. They have a number of churches and two bishops. Jo Fidgen joins the St Lucia procession in the town to find out what place this most Swedish of traditions has in the lives of the town鈥檚 newer residents. What does it tell us about the possibilities for integration in Sweden at a time when the country is struggling with the huge number of recent refugees and an extreme right wing that is growing in confidence?

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Isabelle

Never chosen as a St Lucia

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