The procession of St Lucia - it is a name meaning light. It is also a Swedish Christmas tradition celebrated by Swedish communities around the world.
Reverend Katja Linn is a priest with the Swedish Church of Sydney and she said the ritual remained a popular one in Sweden.
"This beautiful and very loved tradition is the Lucia tradition," she said. "It is Lucia the queen of light. We have a procession when they walk in, sing traditional songs, and if we we're in Sweden we would do it in our families, we would have it in our schools, our workplaces - it's a very loved tradition."
The Swedish community in Australia dates back to 1770 when Swedish botanist Daniel Solander arrived on Captain James Cook's first voyage.
St Lucia ceremony in Sydney. Source: SBS News
The gold rush also saw an influx of Swedish migrants seeking their fortune and the community has been arriving ever since with numbers increasing after the Second World War.
SBS Swedish broadcaster Johan Gabrielsson explains how the community has changed.
"They came in the 60's like people working on the Hydro scheme," he said. "Just labour working in factories, but it changed in the late 80s when more skilled labour came here, engineers people like that. It was quite a clear change, I must say."
But it was falling in love with an Australian that brought Johan Gabrielsson here - along with the weather.
"I woke up on Bondi Beach and thought, 'god, what an extraordinary country'," he said. "Coming from Sweden where it's so dark, I thought it was a great country to live in."
ABS figures from 2011 showed there were close to 7,500 thousand Swedish speakers in Australia - and just over 34,000 people identified as having Swedish ancestry, with communities concentrated in large cities.
SBS Swedish broadcaster Johan Gabrielsson in the early '90s. Source: SBS News
While Sweden doesn't often appear in the news, the country was hit by tragedy during the Asian Tsunami, which claimed the lives of more than 500 Swedish holidaymakers who had flocked to Thai resorts.
Gabrielsson said it was a tough time and SBS Radio acted as contact point for many people concerned about loved ones.
"I just remember the horrendous catastrophe and all the people calling SBS," he said. "We almost became like a centre for a lot of worried Swedes, telling them where to contact the foreign office in Sweden or where to go and that really stands out."
He said the death toll had a profound impact on Swedish society.
"Per capita, per country, it was one of the highest [death tolls]. And Sweden is quite a protected society, so when that happened it was like nothing ever happened like that before in the history of the country."
Swedish is a Germanic language kept alive in Australia's big cities through Swedish community language schools.
Swedish market in Sydney. Source: SBS News
Camilla Jennings, head of Swedish School of Sydney, said the community had made a big effort to maintain the language.
"In Sydney and greater Sydney we have 11 schools with 155 students," she said. "And they come from both families where both parents speak Swedish, but probably the majority are from families where one partner is either Australian or another nationality and one is Swedish."
And SBS Radio's Swedish program continues bringing this Scandinavian language to Australian shores and classrooms.
