My neighborhood has a yuletide tradition of putting out luminaria on Christmas Eve. Even if you haven’t done luminaria yourself, you’ve probably seen them. They consist of a white paper bag with some sand in the bottom and a thick candle stuck in the sand. When lit they emit an ethereal glow. I know people who place luminaria along their front walk or driveway when they have people over for a holiday get-together, but my neighborhood has for years put out hundreds of them, all at the same time. Virtually everyone who celebrates Christmas participates, and the effect can be breathtaking. People come from all over to walk or drive through the neighborhood and take it all in.
Our neighbor Kirk is the organizer, buying the materials in bulk and passing them out to residents. Everybody reimburses him a dollar for each luminaria “kit.” Different people have assumed that responsibility over the last four decades, but Kirk has been doing it since we moved in five years ago and does a great job.
The first Christmas after Jennifer and I moved to the neighborhood, we were away on Christmas Eve and weren’t due back until close to midnight. One of our neighbors volunteered to set up and light our luminaria, so we were able to participate, but I was sorry that we were going to miss the display. I was surprised and delighted when we got home late that night to discover that the luminaria were almost all still burning. It was a remarkable sight.
This year there was a rainstorm on Christmas Eve, so we moved the luminaria display to last night. Unfortunately, it was still windy even then, so many of the luminaria toppled over, got blown out, or incinerated themselves within a couple of hours. (It seemed entirely consistent with almost everything else about 2020.)
But regardless, it’s nice to live in a neighborhood that’s cohesive enough to pull something like this off year after year.
Nice, photo included.