Twenty-year-old Daniela Owusu from the capital region is Finland's Lucia this year.
Owusu's friends said they nominated her for her positive and extroverted personality. Her father is from Ghana while her mother is Finnish. In a previous interview with Svenska Yle she said she wanted to be a role model for young people and show that anyone can become a Lucia, regardless of their background.
"It would be important to have a Lucia who represents multiculturalism and to show that Lucia can look many different ways," she said.
Each December 13, residents of Europe's north crown a modern-day light-bringer on St. Lucia's Day, one of the few saints' days traditionally observed in the Nordics. The original Lucia is believed to have been a Sicilian noblewoman who was brutally martyred in the third century.
Owusu will be officially crowned in Helsinki's Lutheran Cathedral on 13 December, with Yle streaming the coronation live on Yle Fem and Areena starting at 5pm.
Finland's Lucia is chosen in a public vote arranged by the health and wellbeing NGO Folkhälsan and the Swedish-language newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet.
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