Swedes make their own light during Christmas season

STOCKHOLM — As almost round-the-clock night descends on their country in December, Swedes turn to an informal celebration of light, in keeping with long-running traditions and an effort to cope with the darkest time of the year.Candles appear in the windows of homes, shops, offices and cafes throughout Sweden from the start of Advent, on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, to the end of December, when dusk can start creeping over Stockholm as early as 2:00 pm.Most of the time, Swedes light up the traditional "Adventljusstake" -- or Advent candlestick -- a multiple-branch candelabra often in an inverted V shape and nowadays lit by electricity.But star-shaped lanterns are also common, as are straight rows of four or seven electric candles.Such ornaments are often left on all night and through the day.Sweden's Advent window-dressing comes from a mix of customs dating back to the 1800s, Lena Kaettstroem Hoeoek, a specialist in Swedish traditions and curator at Stockholm's Nordiska Museet, told AFP."It started with families, became more and more popular year after year and spread to the workplace and so on," said Kaettstroem Hoeoek, who in a book on Swedish Christmas said a study showed 92 percent of homes lit up their windows during Advent.Two hundred years ago there was only one candle put in the window on Christmas Eve through to Christmas Day."It was a protection against evil forces, it had some kind of a magical explanation, and was also a salutations of sorts" for people going to mass, Kattstroem Hoeoek said.No one knows exactly how the tradition of lighting up windows for the entire month of Advent emerged, but star-shaped lanterns and electric candlesticks began to be common throughout December in the 1930s.In 1937, an employee at the Philips factory in Gothenburg had the idea of putting together seven of the electric candle-shaped Christmas tree lights the factory made: the Adventljusstake was born."It was a big success! There was already the old traditions of having lights in windows, and this was sa

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