Farolitos

One of the wonderful traditions that people in New Mexico celebrate, are the lighting of the luminarias, or little lights. Some also call them farolitos, which is actually closer to the true meaning of these little paper bags filled with sand and tiny candles meant to light the way for Mary and Joseph to find the hay manger where baby Jesus was finally born.

These lights are very simple and somber, not like the colorful electric strung lights most Americans use to decorate their homes, but their simplistic beauty marks an important tradition in New Mexico and the true meaning of Christmas.

We used to have some of those more modern electric-strung plastic bags when we lived in New Mexico 7 years ago, but they were misplaced. They are great to have if you don't want to bother with the paper bag filling and setting out on Christmas Eve, and if you want farolito lights all season. I actually prefer the traditional paper bags more, though.

We were given some cute little snowman farolitos with star cut-outs from friends in South Carolina, but I didn't have the heart to use them and wanted to wait until we were finally back home in our beloved New Mexico once again to light them.....and we are finally here. Hard to believe we've been here for a year now! haha

Jackson and Jeremiah filling the farolitos with sand. Some folks purchase bags of sand, but our yard is all sand, so....why bother? hehe
Jackson filling the bags with tea light candles
Jackson setting up the farolitos in the front of our yard. Today has been frigidly cold and windy. We still have some ice and snow left over in our front yard. And it is snowing on the Sandia mountains again tonight.

Lighting of the farolitos. Very pretty with the light coming through the cut-out stars.