Candles and Festivals of Light

Candles brighten many occasions, but they are most prominent and most infused with meaning during the winter holidays. Among others, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and Kwanzaa use candles and lamps in their holiday celebrations.

Yule, deriving from old Norse "jól" and Old English "géohol" began as a celebration of the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Archeologists have discovered that the sun shining through the upright lentils of England's Stonehenge signaled a time of feasting even as far back as Neolithic times. To primitive peoples, Yule was proof that the...