History of Christmas Luminaries

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Christmas is the time to enjoy and celebrate with family and friends. People come together to during Christmas and have parties and feasts. A lot of traditions are related to Christmas. One cannot think about Christmas without festive lights, traditional music and well decorated Christmas tree. The preparations for Christmas start almost in the last week of November and entire families get involved in it. Homes are decorated with wreaths, nativity scenes while Christmas trees are decorated with ornaments, tinsel and so on. Christmas luminaries are part of rich Christmas tradition. The history of Christmas luminaries is long and quite old.

Christmas luminaries are traditionally used to light homes, sidewalks, pavements during Christmas. The tradition of lighting candles in paper bag is part of American Southwest. These luminaries are in number of hundreds and thousands, which are lit on Christmas Eve. One can trace roots of traditional luminaries in form of candles placed in a mini, sand-filled, brown paper bags in sixteenth century. This tradition of luminaries came into existence through Spain, where bonfires were lit on roadside and churchyard so that people find way to reach midnight mass held during winter festival of Las Posadas.

Through Spain, this tradition reached Mexico and parts of America. People even light luminaries in respect of Mary and Joseph, who are searching lodging to give birth to Christ during night. The same tradition is followed even today in modern times. People decorate homes, fences, roofs, sidewalks, etc. with help of luminaries, which help the tourists to get to their destinations safely during Christmas nights. The other word for luminaries is farolitos, which means little lanterns in Spanish. Chinese lanterns were used in nineteenth century to decorate entrance of home in some parts of America. Many people opted for paper bag as they were affordable in comparison of Chinese lanterns.

Luminaries have become a part of great American holiday tradition. Today, you get luminaries that have electric lights in traditional brown, small bags. Now, luminaries are available in various sizes, shapes and colors. People use these fabulous lights and decorate homes on Christmas nights in traditional manner. People use white bakery bags as luminaries as it gives great effect of lighted candle during night. Half the bag is filled with sand, a candle is inserted into it. The luminary is ready to be lit. The sand helps to give required weight and the bag does not blow away as well as was from candle is melted in the sand. When the candle flickers inside the bag, light spreads and a cool effect is set.

The paper bags also have interesting cuttings like Christmas tree, star, angel, etc. made on its sides. This gives a unique look to the luminaries and people are attracted towards them. Even though the history of luminaries is quite old, people have treasured the magnificent tradition.