History of Candle Lighting

Today's candles provide decorative nostalgia, but early candles lit businesses and celebrations that shaped civilizations. Advances in materials made candles affordable, and they have been adopted for uses ranging from humble cottage industries to grand opera stage lighting.

Early Lights

• The Romans and Egyptians made the first candles by dipping rolled papyrus in animal fat or beeswax. The Chinese used rolled paper wicks, and Indians made wax from cinnamon tree fruits. Candles lit home interiors, religious ceremonies, and the paths of night travelers.

Medieval Lights

• Beeswax candles were very expensive, but rush lights -- reed wicks dipped in tallow -- lighted many medieval homes and formed the basis for medieval graft guilds of candle-makers, or chandlers, who provided beeswax candles for the "chandeliers" of the nobility.

Advances

• Although the Japanese used tree nuts and American colonists boiled bayberries to make candle wax, major advances in materials began in the early 1800s that included the use of crystallized sperm whale oil, stearic acid, and finally petroleum-based paraffin.

Fun Fact

• Theatrical stages used candles from the wings and across the apron's "foot" from the 15th century until the adoption of gaslights in the early 1800s.