I read about farolitos and luminaria on https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day this morning and found the cultural aspect of it interesting.
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."
(taken from Merriam-Webster)
To see it in context or listen to the pronunciation, check the link: https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day (December 24, 2023).
