One of my fondest Christmas memories comes from my days living in New Mexico. Seeing walkways and buildings illuminated with a sea of glowing luminarias is such a beautiful and spectacular site around the holidays.
I've actually thought about decorating my house and yard with them just to try and capture some of that southwestern flavor.
Here is a little information about luminarias from the Visit Albuquerque website:
The glowing brown sacks that adorn Albuquerque walkways, churches and homes each holiday season are called luminarias and date back more than 300 years. The New Mexican tradition began when the Spanish villages along the Rio Grande displayed the unique and easy to make Christmas lanterns, called luminarias to welcome the Christ child into the world. A traditional luminaria is a brown paper bag, which has been folded at the top, filled will a couple cups of sand and a votive candle.Luminarias have not always been made out of paper bags, the early versions were actually small bonfires of crisscrossed piñon branches which were built in three-foot high squares. When colored paper was brought over from the Orient years later, luminarias became what they are today. Instead of making lanterns that would hang in a tree or from a roof, which would become damaged by the wind, small bags were made and placed on the ground, rooftops and along pathways.
Check Out:
No comments:
Post a Comment