diff --git a/awesomerc.lua.in b/awesomerc.lua.in
index 921b8830..682838cc 100644
--- a/awesomerc.lua.in
+++ b/awesomerc.lua.in
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ mytasklist.label = awful.widget.tasklist.label.currenttags
 -- Create a textbox widget
 mytextbox = widget({ type = "textbox", name = "mytextbox", align = "right" })
 -- Set the default text in textbox
-mytextbox.text = "<b><small> awesome " .. AWESOME_VERSION .. " </small></b>"
+mytextbox.text = "<b><small> " .. AWESOME_RELEASE .. " </small></b>"
 mypromptbox = widget({ type = "textbox", name = "mypromptbox", align = "left" })
 
 -- Create a laucher widget
diff --git a/lua.c b/lua.c
index 1d4c4b3a..8fa24d5f 100644
--- a/lua.c
+++ b/lua.c
@@ -616,6 +616,10 @@ luaA_init(void)
     lua_pushstring(L, AWESOME_VERSION);
     lua_settable(L, LUA_GLOBALSINDEX);
 
+    lua_pushliteral(L, "AWESOME_RELEASE");
+    lua_pushstring(L, AWESOME_RELEASE);
+    lua_settable(L, LUA_GLOBALSINDEX);
+
     luaA_dostring(L, "package.path = package.path .. \";" AWESOME_LUA_LIB_PATH  "/?.lua\"");
     luaA_dostring(L, "package.path = package.path .. \";" AWESOME_LUA_LIB_PATH  "/?/init.lua\"");