Luminaria Nights

I’ve always found New Mexico to be a fascinating state. From its unique Southwestern architecture to their annual holiday traditions of luminarias, I wouldn’t be surprised if New Mexico were to meet almost all of my expectations and in the process, win my heart. Luminarias aren’t really a thing outside of New Mexico however I was still able to experience it here in Southern California, at the California Botanic Garden. Wonderful, isn’t it?

Luminarias seem so simple yet create such a grand ambiance. Initially, I pondered if it was wise of me to spend my time and money on an event called Luminaria Nights where I’d just be frolicking about in the dark among pathways lit by candles inside paper bags. The only way was to find out and I’m so glad I decided to find out.

The event was worth it. Traffic was horrible but that is to be expected in California.

Having been to the California Botanic Garden before, I knew there was no way the whole place would be lit up by luminarias and I was right. It’s just too big of a place to do such a thing but many places were lit up and it looked nice.

It wasn’t an event meant for solo attendees. Sure, you can come as a solo attendee; you’ll just be surrounded by couples or families. Nothing wrong with that but what is wrong is people’s mentality with tackling space. Yup. At events like these, people tend to lack awareness of how they shouldn’t hog up space. If you’re in a big party, you’re hogging up space. Please make room for other people that are attending with just one other person or are actually alone.

I suppose this is a major pet peeve of mine and will always be a pet peeve of mine no matter where I am or what I’m doing. To make matters worse, some areas were really dark and some people opted to have a contest on who would make way for the other party first. Grow up, please!

Fortunately, it wasn’t really a big deal, especially not at a place and event that comes off more classy than others.

The person checking me in was a sweet, older lady. I was a bit taken aback by how they weren’t checking us in simply by scanning our tickets but by going through an old school roster list. I suppose this way of checking people in just resonates more with the older population and I must say that many seniors did show up to this event.

Anyway, I was glad to learn that the event wasn’t just about the luminarias. There were three performances and a laser show. Nice and I must say all performers were great.

The harpist and the harp itself was amazing. If anyone ever told you that the harp is an angel’s instrument, let me just tell you they didn’t lie. What an amazing instrument. This instrument can make you melt like butter.

There was a man playing Native American flutes that might have triggered a coyote or two from time to time. If you happened to be at his performance at the right time, you would have caught his wife performing on sound bowls (?) as well. They were rather loud and can be painful to your ears if you have super sensitive ears. I believe the sound bowls encourages the coyotes to cry out.

And a group that sang and played classy music. Here, I must say that I’ve never seen a xylophone look like a lot of work. It’s got to be a lot more complex to play the xylophone than it looks, right?

And that laser show? Hm, let’s just say it was nice but too many people were obsessing over it. I saw a man create an ambiance for it while recording. I have no idea what he (or his group) was trying to do but it kind of irked me a bit that he had moved a luminaria. It made me assume that he was one of those types of content creators that would be willing to take it further in order to make the content picture perfect. I don’t know for sure if that’s what was happening but I certainly got turned off by it… (Considering the fact that one wrong move could ignite a flame in the garden, I don’t think it was wise for him or anyone else to move around a luminaria.)

The weather was cold and all I can say is that I had come to the event well prepared. I had on a beanie, a jacket and gloves, even!

They had a fire pit that I didn’t care about since the people sitting there didn’t look too friendly. They also had some type of a bake sale, wine bar and mistletoe booth which I of course didn’t care for as well. I wanted real food. If they had real food, I would have been willing to shell out $10+ for a meal. But I guess they can’t really do such a thing since food, that late in the night could potentially attract wildlife and we wouldn’t want a scene, now would we?

So, would I go to this event again? Honestly, I liked the event but wouldn’t want to battle traffic just to attend the event again. I do like the sound of going all the way to New Mexico to see how the luminarias are like over there, though. LOL How dare I think that when I just complained about traffic to the California Botanic Garden? Silly me. As for you, you should go to the event if you’ve never been to the event before. I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised. It’s actually an event that can come off rather romantic if not too many people are around you while you’re frolicking about in the dark.

**Click HERE to watch my video on Luminaria Nights!**