The question was: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What do you call those things you put a candle into and line your driveway with?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The answer was: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re luminarias, but in some places, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re called farolitos.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Alas, but a once-and-for-all answer is not possible. Researching something like the difference between the two terms, which surface each Christmas season, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a question of exhaustive sources; rather, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a matter of being selective:<\/p>\n
There are reams of articles on these topics.<\/p>\n
We contacted a few people from northern New Mexico to get their take on luminarias and farolitos, and while there is some agreement on terms, people put their own slant on things.
\nRudy Laumbach maintains that the farolito is the item that contains a candle, whereas the luminaria is really a bonfire. And how does a farolito become a luminaria? Well, it happens when the paper bag that encloses the candle ignites and starts a bonfire.<\/p>\n
Erminio Martinez recalls that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153people would make a little stack of sticks and light them just before Christmas. When in his teens, in the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc40s, Erminio watched and helped as family chopped little pieces of wood. The purpose was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to light the way for the Christ child to get to your house,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n
Martinez is from Holman, a place fraught with tradition, where the day after Christmas, children, in a trick-or-treat fashion, visited neighbors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 homes and chanted a ditty, part of which goes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oremos, oremos\/ angelitos semos\/ del cielo venemos\/ a pedir oremos.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
A loose translation is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We pray, we pray\/ we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re little angels from heaven who come to ask for alms.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s followed by a threat to vandalize the houses if no treats are forthcoming.<\/p>\n
To fellow Las Vegan, Peggy Hoogerhuies, who makes no distinction between luminarias and farolitos, the lighted object is what people placed in yards and driveways to commemorate the passing away of a family member or friend. While still working at what was then the State Hospital, Peggy helped set up the elaborate luminaria drive-through at Luna Community College, following the annual Electric Light Parade.<\/p>\n
Henry and Teresa Trujillo, retirees after 28 and 18 years from the West Las Vegas Schools, remember times in their youth when Christmas rituals were steeped in tradition. Henry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recollection is that the farolitos were composed of stacks of sticks of wood that created a path to the church.<\/p>\n
Henry says he attended Our Lady of Sorrows church and recalls walking through rows of the illuminated paper bags on the way to services. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They were lit in proximity to churches to guide parishioners to the church,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n
Teresa, a former elementary school teacher in the West District, remembers that the little bonfires were farolitos and the candles inside paper bags were luminarias.<\/p>\n
Growing up in nearby Anton Chico, Theresa recalls the large part farolitos and luminarias played in rituals such as Las Posadas. She laments the diminution of such ceremonies, saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re losing our culture, our traditions and even our language.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Guided by candlelight and bonfires \u00e2\u20ac\u201d she said there was precious little light at night in that pin-dot community \u00e2\u20ac\u201d villagers took part in what was then a carefully orchestrated ritual, in which pre-selected homes served as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inn\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that would welcome the Holy Family, on the way to Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
At some places, Teresa says, there was no room at the inn. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dueling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d choruses would sing songs either pushing to have Mary and Joseph allowed into the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inn,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or using lyrics urging the opposite. The pre-selected \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inn\u00e2\u20ac\u009d would open its doors to all, where feasting and singing followed.<\/p>\n
All those interviewed on their impressions of the significance of farolitos vs. luminarias provide somewhat similar stories, although they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t all agree on the terminology on those lighted objects.<\/p>\n
These days, technology allows for the bags to be lighted by electricity, and \u00e2\u20ac\u201d who knows? \u00e2\u20ac\u201d whether the candles, sticks and paper bags of old may some day morph into a spectacular laser show.<\/p>\n
People will probably never agree on whether they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re luminarias or farolitos. The issue may become as tenacious as whether the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Christmas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d combination served in restaurants trumps red or green chile, or even whether the spelling is chili or chile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The question was: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What do you call those things you put a candle into and line your driveway with?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The answer was: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re luminarias, but in some places, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re called farolitos.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Alas, but a once-and-for-all answer is not possible. Researching something like the difference between the two terms, which surface each Christmas season, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1167,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166\/revisions\/1167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}