The girls who follow Saint Lucia in Swedish processions are called tärnor.
The Swedish noun tärna means a young woman or attendant, and in a Lucia procession the tärnor form the female group accompanying Lucia. They usually wear long white robes, carry candles, and sing with Lucia and the rest of the choir. Lucia traditionally leads the procession wearing a candle crown and a red sash.
Tärnor became part of the familiar Swedish Lucia arrangement as the celebration expanded from smaller household and regional customs into larger public processions. The modern national popularity of the tradition grew especially after a Stockholm newspaper organized a Lucia contest and procession in 1927.
The most frequent vocabulary mistake is swapping tärnor with stjärngossar. Tärnor are Lucia’s attendants; stjärngossar are the boys in pointed, star-decorated hats. Depending on the school or community, a procession may also include Christmas figures such as tomtar, but those characters are not tärnor.