Word of the Day

: December 24, 2023

luminaria

noun loo-muh-NAIR-ee-uh

What It Means

A luminaria is a lantern—traditionally used in Christmas celebrations in the southwestern U.S.—that typically consists of a candle (or its electric analogue) set in sand inside a paper bag. Luminaria is also broadly used to refer to a similar lantern lit for other occasions, such as memorials or weddings. Both luminarias and luminaria are acceptable plural forms of luminaria.

// One of Anna’s favorite Christmas Eve traditions is lighting luminaria with her family to line their driveway in a festive display.

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luminaria in Context

“A cherished tradition, Las Noches de las Luminarias at the Desert Botanical Garden is a great spectacle. As one of the garden’s longest-running events, it invites visitors to wander along trails decorated with thousands of twinkling, hand-lit luminarias.” — Karee Blunt, The Courier-Times (Roxboro, North Carolina), 17 Oct. 2023

Did You Know?

The tradition of lighting small lanterns on the night (or nights) before Christmas is an old one in what is now New Mexico, dating back to when the region belonged to colonial Spain and later to independent Mexico. Where one lives in New Mexico today, however, often determines what these paper lanterns are called. New Mexicans in the northern part of the state, around Santa Fe, call them farolitos, Spanish for “little lanterns.” Those further south, around Albuquerque, are more likely to call them luminaria (or luminarias), a word that began appearing in English publications around the 1930s, and that is today used more broadly to refer to such lanterns lit for other occasions, such as memorials, weddings, etc. Luminaria comes to English from Spanish, but the word has been around with exactly the same spelling since the days of Late Latin. It ultimately traces to the classical Latin word luminare, meaning “window,” and to lumen, meaning “light.” It is related to other light-bearing words such as luminary and illuminate.