Batavia church site of Christmas Julotta service
Growing up in Batavia as a daughter of Swedish ancestry, I looked upon Christmas as a series of Swedish traditions.
It all started Dec. 13 with Santa Lucia Day. In commemoration of Lucia, young Swedish girls would don the familiar Lucia crown and welcome the morning with hot coffee and Santa Lucia buns.
For my family, the next Swedish tradition would be Doppa Greta, or dipping of bread in the broth at noon Christmas Eve.
According to my grandmother, that tradition started when farmers would come in for lunch and find their wives busy getting the traditional smorgasbord ready for Christmas Eve. Rather than take time to serve lunch to the men, the women would tell them to take some bread and dip it in the broth of the pot roast and Swedish sausage cooking on the stove.
For us, the Doppa Greta menu includes sausage, pot roast, Swedish rye bread and a tray of cheeses. Later in the evening there is the familiar smorgasbord with ham, potatoes, rice pudding with lingonberry sauce, meatballs, and herring. Luckily my sister and I agree there isn't enough cream sauce in the world to kill the taste of Lutefisk, so that tradition has fallen away.
Christmas Eve services were followed by an early morning service known as Julotta. Many of our Swedish seniors remember it as being the most important part of the Christmas celebration. The idea of going to church in the dark on Christmas morning and leaving in the light is synonymous with the advent/Christmas season.
Julotta has been a long standing tradition at Bethany Lutheran Church in Batavia and it is one of the few Julotta services in the Chicago area. At 8 a.m. on Christmas, Pastor John Leaf of Moline will conduct the familiar service with the liturgy and the hymns in Swedish and the sermon in English. A former pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Yorkville, Leaf grew up in a Swedish home, the son of a Lutheran pastor in Andover.
"Andover was filled with Swedes. We had all those who didn't make it to Batavia," said Leaf with a smile in his voice.
Although Leaf's father spoke Swedish, he didn't conduct the Julotta service in Swedish. He always did it in English. The familiar hymns and the breakfast were part of the tradition that remained.
"I speak a little Swedish," Leaf said. "So when I received the call from Pastor Norman Nelson, I agreed to come to Batavia for the service. I'm looking forward to it."
When the sounds of "When Christmas Morn Is Dawning" ring out through the church, there will be a little bit of Sweden that echoes within the walls.
If you go
What: Julotta service
When: 8 a.m. Christmas, with a Swedish breakfast following the service
Where: Bethany Lutheran Church 8 S. Lincoln St., Batavia
Info: (630) 879-3444