Neighborhood Aglow With Tradition

It’s been 26 years, but June Howie still gets tickled seeing her Casitas Springs neighborhood light up on Christmas Eve with a warm, flickering glow.

Every Dec. 24 as dusk falls, thousands of luminarias -- candles twinkling in paper bags weighted with sand -- overtake her street and two others in the small community just off California 33, south of Ojai.

And people come from all over -- a few more each year -- to view the low-tech light show.

Howie brought the tradition to her neighborhood from Albuquerque, where she lived for eight years and became enchanted with the “little lights,” or farolitos, that edge many walkways, churches, gardens and neighborhoods during the Christmas season.

When she and her husband, Don, moved back to Ventura County in 1984, they conspired with their three adult children, who lived on the same street, to set out the little glowing bags the night before Christmas.

Their neighbors liked what they saw and soon followed suit.

Now, two decades later, the luminarias gang is 53 families strong.

“It’s just something everyone picked up on,” says Howie, a retired Ventura print shop owner, “and they don’t want to let it loose.”

The tradition is quite popular in New Mexico and throughout the Southwest, but it is less prevalent here. The lights can be seen in a few isolated neighborhoods around Ventura County, as well as at the Santa Barbara Mission and throughout the Santa Ynez Valley town of Los Olivos.

In Casitas Springs, the excitement starts to build from about noon, when residents begin collecting the sand -- trucked in and dumped on one neighbor’s driveway -- they need for the 3,000 luminarias that soon adorn their streets, yards and entryways.

John Dickenson, 44, stood in his driveway on Ranch Road, shoveling sand from a wheelbarrow into paper bags. He said he really enjoys being a part of the annual tradition.

“It’s cool living in a neighborhood that does this sort of thing,” Dickenson said. “It gives me something to look forward to.”

After all the candles are lighted, residents mill about the neighborhood, chatting, sharing eggnog and cocoa, and sometimes engaging in Christmas sing-alongs around small outdoor fires.

“It really is amazing,” Howie said. “I ask different people how it can keep going on, and they just say this is characteristic of our neighborhood.”

The idea was a concern at first to firefighters and police, Howie said, but the luminarias have never caused a problem in Casitas Springs. The sand keeps the brown paper lunch bags from blowing over while the short candles burn through the night.

The tradition evolved from bonfires that, centuries ago, were lighted in Spanish and Mexican villages during Christmas Eve celebrations.

Later, smaller fires made from crisscrossed pinon sticks were built in front of each home, meant to light the way for the holy family.

During the same season, Indians of the Southwest lighted pinon fires to pay their respects to the spirits.

But how the bonfires ended up in paper bags is less clear. Some say the custom evolved from the delicate paper lanterns that came to Mexico via China.

Others prefer a fictional story written by New Mexico novelist Rudolfo Anaya, which tells of a New Mexico girl who devises the paper-bag lanterns to keep the tradition alive for her family during World War II.

Bobbie Lupold, a 13-year Casitas Springs resident, said it’s fitting that luminaria history is somewhat foggy.

“Some things should remain a mystery,” she said, adding jokingly, “like how old I am.”

Lupold took over as chief organizer of the event a couple of years ago when Howie “retired.”

It’s no easy task. She must take orders months in advance, scour the Internet for deals on candles and paper bags -- they get up to 3,400 of each -- and then deliver the supplies to 53 homes.

But the finished product, a magical display of pretty little lights, is well worth it, she said.

“We live there because we like a simpler way of life,” Lupold said. “I think this little tradition represents who we are as a community.”