An Old Tradition Burns Bright
At dusk on Christmas Eve, the lights blink out in June Howie’s Casitas Springs neighborhood. Outside, new lights flicker on with a soft orange glow that’s warm and inviting and assertively low-tech.
Luminarias--candles twinkling in paper bags weighted by sand--line the streets and the walkways of about 45 homes. It has the look of an airport runway in the Land of Oz.
Neighbors gather outside and the curious drive through slowly with their headlights off, absorbing the enchantment. For Howie, it’s a reminder of the past.
“I used to live in Albuquerque,” she said, laughing. “It’s notorious over there.”
In fact, the luminaria tradition is a big deal throughout much of the Southwest. In spots such as Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos and Phoenix, luminarias edge walkways, plazas, churches, gardens, businesses and entire neighborhoods, creating a glowing wonderland for residents and tourists alike during the Christmas season.
The tradition is alive here too, though not nearly as prevalent. Luminarias will create a dazzling light show at Ventura’s Olivas Adobe during special holiday tours Sunday.
In Santa Barbara, the mission will be ablaze with the simple lights during a Christmas sing-along Dec. 21. If you prefer your caroling on the beach, you can join a park ranger this weekend for music amid the glow of luminarias.
For Howie, the luminarias have been a Casitas Springs tradition for 12 years, ever since she and her husband, Don, moved from Albuquerque. Their children lived nearby and they all set out the little bags on Christmas Eve. Soon their neighbors joined them.
“Now just about everyone participates,” Howie said. The light show, just off Highway 33, runs along Ranch Road, Edison Drive and Sycamore Drive.
Howie organizes the effort, trekking to Los Angeles to pick up about 4,000 short, squat long-burning candles and lunch-size paper bags. A pickup truckload of sand sits in her driveway, ready for neighbors to come by and shovel what they need.
Some residents put out 100 or more luminarias. “We make sure the whole distance is covered,” said Paul Heully, owner of Lightning Ridge Screenprinting on Highway 33 at Ranch Road. “We pick up the slack if someone can’t afford it. Everyone helps everyone else.”
The result is spectacular. “People come from all over--I don’t know if it’s a curse or a blessing,” he said. “The traffic is a mess. Every year a few more come.”
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Fire and police personnel were apprehensive in the beginning, Howie acknowledged. But the luminarias haven’t caused a problem. The sand holds the stubby candles in place and keeps the paper bags from blowing over.
For those who are skittish about candles, technology has come to the rescue: electric luminarias. They’re a hit in the Southwest, where many people line their adobe rooftops with them.
The Howies will top their house with the electric version this year, and they won’t be the only ones.
Mike Vaughan, also struck by the custom in Albuquerque, strings electric luminarias along the deck at his Ojai home. “They look pretty darn good,” he said.
Amid the rooftop Santas and the colorful Christmas lights that traditionally deck neighborhoods, the soft, simple luminarias--electric or candle-powered--are beginning to pop up all around Ventura County.
They’re hardly new, though. They have a long and somewhat muddled history. For centuries, people in Spain, and later in Mexico, would stack crossed pinon boughs and ignite them on Christmas Eve. The bonfires were intended to light the holy family’s way to shelter.
During the same season, the Indians of the Southwest also lit pinon bonfires to pay their respects to the spirits.
How the bonfires came to dwell in paper bags is murky. Some say the custom stems from the delicate paper lanterns that came to Mexico via China. Often lit for festivals, these may have evolved into sturdier lanterns when Yankee peddlers came over the Santa Fe Trail, bringing with them the humble brown bags.
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Even today it’s confusing, because in the northern part of New Mexico the candle-lit bags are called farolitos, which means lanterns in Spanish. Throughout most of the Southwest, however, they are known as luminarias, or lights. And debates continue about their origin.
“There’s no one explanation,” said New Mexico novelist Rudolfo Anaya. That’s why he wrote a children’s book last year called “The Farolitos of Christmas.” Set during World War II, it’s a fictional account of how a New Mexico girl uses her ingenuity to devise the paper-bag lights, replacing the traditional Christmas Eve bonfires.
Now some people are taking his story as gospel. Just how, when, and where the bag idea surfaced is “misty history,” he said. “You will not find a year, a date, a person.”
Whatever the origin, the effect is spectacular. “It’s like a fairyland--people line their walks, driveways, walls, tops of their homes,” Anaya said. Bus tours come through. There are luminaria decorating contests.
In Ventura, the Olivas Adobe will shimmer in the glow of luminarias Sunday, when costumed docents lead free tours through the historic mansion to show how Christmas was celebrated in old California. The tours will take place from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Following the practice of the last 12 years, volunteers will set nearly 200 of the glowing bags in the courtyard in the shape of a giant eight-pointed star--the star of Bethlehem.
Whether luminarias were used at the adobe during the rancho days isn’t known. But the tours provide a taste of what Christmas was like in that era. One custom was the posada--the reenactment of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem and their search for lodging just before the birth of Jesus.
Those on the tours will get a taste of the posada as they see skits performed in the adobe’s various rooms. In the kitchen, docents portray cooks making a spicy Christmas cake with little treats hidden inside. In the sewing room, two women help a girl into her angel costume while they reminisce about their first posadas.
Luminarias will also cast their magical glow on Mission Santa Barbara. For the Christmas sing-along Dec. 21, about 300 luminarias are positioned on the steps, along paths and around the fountain. The 7 p.m. candle-lit music fest usually draws several hundred carolers.
For a different caroling experience, state parks interpreter Jim Holt is leading beach outings Saturday and Sunday with the added feature of luminarias at dusk.
Saturday’s outing is at 3:30 p.m. at El Matador State Beach, a sandy pocket near Decker Road, below Leo Carrillo State Beach. On Sunday, it’s at 4 p.m. at Malibu Lagoon State Beach in Malibu.
Those who join in will have a chance to draw or sculpt Christmas trees in the sand and decorate them with beach stuff, like kelp strands, rocks and shells. At sunset, they’ll put sand in the paper bags, set the candles in place, strike a match and turn on the lights.
Tips on Lighting Up the Night
Luminarias are easy to make, but there are a few precautions you should take.
First, use 12-inch lunch paper bags. Fold down the top, forming about a 2-inch cuff all around. Then put two inches of sand in the bottom.
Use a short, fat candle called a votive candle. Place it in the center of the sand, which supports the candle and keeps the sides of the bag spread out.
Because you’re dealing with fire, use common sense: Don’t display the luminarias inside the house. Outside, be sure not to use them in high brush areas or where there is dried vegetation, warns Kathie Zirretta, fire-prevention inspector for the Ventura County Fire Department. The luminarias are fine along walkways and driveways; have a garden hose handy. And if it’s windy, don’t light them.
Keep a close watch on the luminarias if there are children nearby. Never leave them unattended, and don’t forget to extinguish them.
DETAILS
Here’s where you can see luminarias:
* BEACH CAROLING, Saturday, El Matador State Beach, 3:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Malibu Lagoon State Beach, 4 p.m. Free; information, 818-880-0350.
* OLIVAS ADOBE Candlelight Christmas tours, Sunday, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., 4200 Olivas Park Drive, Ventura. Free; information, 658-4726.
* CAROLING, Dec. 21, 7 p.m., Mission Santa Barbara, 2201 Laguna St. Free; information 682-4713.
* LUMINARIA DISPLAY, Dec. 24, dusk, along Ranch Road, Sycamore Drive and Edison Drive in Casitas Springs. Turn down Ranch Road from Highway 33 (no left turn onto Sycamore); there is parking at Casitas Springs Community Center.
