As scores of Durangoans made their way to Christmas Eve services or toured the town looking for Christmas lights Tuesday night, their way was lit by luminarias.
The simple brown bags anchored with a scoop of sand and flickering with the light of a votive candle are easy to make – until it becomes a mass production to create hundreds, as the residents on both East Third Avenue and near Fassbinder Park discovered.
“We have four to six volunteers per block,” East Third Avenue organizer Graham Stahnke said. “And about half-a-dozen new team captains this year.”
The East Third Avenue volunteers, with captains for every block from just south of Third Street north to 15th Street, set out 1,300 of the small bags down the center of the median. The Fassbinder crew, led by new-to-the neighborhood Meredith Mapel, held its inaugural lighting with about 640.
“We had about four kids and 10 adults to set up,” she said. “We kind of banged them out, and it sort of turned into a Mapel athletic event. But several more families came out and helped when it was time to light them all.”
Sandco Inc., which donated the sand, dropped off loads at various stages along the avenue and at Fassbinder. South City Market donated all the bags, and Kroeger’s Ace Hardware contributed the lighters. Last year, a secret Santa donated $400 to purchase the candles for the boulevard, but this year the funds came from the Third Avenue Boulevard Neighborhood Fund, and Mapel donated the candles for her project.
All hands on deck
“They asked us to captain two blocks down here,” said Laura Swan, whose family – including husband, Randy; daughters Alyssa, 17, and Kaitlyn, 15; and son, Christian, 12 – took on the two southernmost blocks of the project. “I’ve got a nice big crew here.”
The Swan family, who was working on the luminarias for the first time, spent most of the day on the slopes before coming down for the project.
“It’s a great, great project,” Alyssa said as she scooped sand into bags.
The Orndorff family at the other end of the boulevard in the 1200 block was working on the luminarias for the first time, too, and they came up with a clever way to transfer the bags from the assembly point to the display stage – a baby stroller.
Doug Orndorff was out in shorts on the sunny afternoon of Christmas Eve, a far cry from last year, when it was snowing and freezing. His wife, Shanan, was working down the block, while daughter Ava, 9, and Jackson, 6, pitched in along with their parents.
Would they be checking out the luminarias after they were lit?
“You can see them from your window,” Doug Ostendorff told his son, who was worried that he might miss Santa if he went on a walk to look at the luminarias after church.
Will and Vicki Coe have volunteered to put out the luminarias pretty much ever since the tradition began on East Third Avenue.
“There doesn’t seem to be any retiring from this job,” Vicki Coe said with a laugh as she filled paper bags.
Her husband transferred the bags to their ultimate location on a jury-rigged sled, also known as a cardboard box on a leash, saying that his back would be sore when the project is done.
“But I’ll have plenty of eggnog tonight and wine with Christmas Eve dinner,” he said, “and I’ll feel fine.”
A long tradition
The residents of East Third Avenue have been putting out their luminarias for a couple of decades, with an interlude when volunteers were scarce, leading organizers to take two years off.
But the tradition of luminarias goes back 400 years or more and hails from New Mexico. According to historian Pedro Ribera Ortega, who wrote Christmas in Old Santa Fe, in the 16th century, small bonfires called luminarias burned along the roads in communities along the Rio Grande and around church entrances to welcome the Christ child and guide worshippers to midnight Mass.
As Mexico’s trade with other outposts in the Spanish empire increased, goods arrived from the Philippines, which also traded with China, and colorful paper lanterns arrived in the Land of Enchantment. The lanterns, while popular, were rare and expensive. After Americans showed up in the 1800s with their brown paper bags, the problem was solved.
So what we call luminarias more correctly would be called “farolitos,” which is the Spanish term for little lanterns and is the word used in much of northern New Mexico.
‘Beautiful for the community’
Why would so many people spend their Christmas Eve assembling luminarias?
“It’s a simple, simple task,” said Mapel, who grew up on East Fourth Avenue and said her mother always made luminarias, “but it’s so pretty, so rewarding.”
She also was inspired after touring the luminaria display in Old Town in Albuquerque, where thousands glow in the night.
“It’s just magic,” she said. “That’s really it – we’re just creating some cheer.”
Other volunteers agreed.
“I think it’s beautiful for the community, and everyone’s very encouraging,” said Brittany Olson, who was recruited by Stahnke, her brother-in-law, last year.
She did some recruiting of her own in 2013, bringing her friend James Jensen. He appreciated that the votive candles they were using were supposed to burn about 10 hours.
“That’s great for the late-night revelers,” he said.
Whether it was the Orndorffs and Swans, who were all going to be viewing the luminarias for the first time, or the Coes, for whom it was a time-honored tradition, they all agreed it was worth the effort.
“After they’re lit, we come down and walk around Third Avenue,” Vicki Coe said. “All the cars drive by really slowly, and some even turn their lights off so they can appreciate them. It’s really beautiful.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
