Simple pleasures nr 3: Light a candle

There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle

Robert Alden

Candles are - fortunately - no more man´s main source of light. But there are still so many reasons to light a candle. Particularly here up in the the north of Europe, where days are short this time of the year. The warm glow of a candle brightens up the darkest day.

While living in Copenhagen some years ago, I noticed that the Danes have a very nice habit of lighting candles in their homes, even on days when there is no particular reason to mark a celebration. They just enjoy the the warm light a candle creates.

There seems to be a lot of uncertainties about the origin of candles. The Romans are credited with developing the wick candle, which they used for lighting their homes and places of worship. With the introduction of the light bulb in 1879 the the production of candles declined, but before long it started to grow again, when people learned to appreciate the beauty of light from living candles .

If you are interested in learning more about candle history, and candles in general, this site has a lot of interesting information:

http://www.candlecomfort.com/historyofcandles.html

(picture from beautifulfreepictures.com)