Daniela Owusu, 20, who is Finnish Ghanaian and Finland’s first Black Lucia, has received thousands of letters of hate mail, compelling Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo to apologize. Others said they would take legal action against the haters, according to Svenska Yle, Finland‘s national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926.

Organizers of the holiday event reported the abuse to the police and to the discrimination ombudsman and are considering taking legal action. 

Saint Lucia Day is celebrated across Finland, especially in Swedish-speaking communities, every year on December 13.

The day has Catholic and Orthodox origins and is widely celebrated as a festival of light, as Lucia means ‘light’. The celebration used to fall on the shortest day of the year.

Every year, a young woman is chosen to wear a wreath carrying live candles in a ceremony held at Helsinki’s Lutheran Cathedral.

The racist abuse came a week after Finland’s Independence Day celebrations were overshadowed by a far-right march through the capital attended by Teemu Keskisarja, an MP for the far-right Finns party, which is part of the government. 

Folkhälsan, the organization behind the festival, said the “stream of racist messages” was “deeply distressing” and that it may take legal action.

Owusu, who is from Kirkkonummi, first saw the candle ceremony on television when she was in kindergarten and decided then that she wanted to be a Lucia one day.

“I’m a little nervous,” Owusu told Yle from outside Helsinki Cathedral on Friday afternoon.

In an interview with Svenska Yle, Owusu said after she won a public vote to wear this year’s crown she wanted to be a role model for young people and show that anyone can become a Lucia, regardless of their background. 

According to the World Happiness Report, Finland is currently considered the happiest country on Earth; it has held this top ranking for several years in a row. 

Her father is from Ghana; her mother is Finnish.