The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting on the 2nd Sunday in December unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor the memories of the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and grandchildren who left too soon. As candles are lit on December 13th, 2020 at 7:00 pm local time, hundreds of thousands of people commemorate and honor the memory of all children gone too soon.
Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the annual Worldwide Candle Lighting (WCL), a gift to the bereavement community from The Compassionate Friends, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. TCF’s WCL started in the United States in 1997 as a small internet observance and has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held, and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes, as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died and will never be forgotten.
IMPORTANT: If you attempt to submit your candle lighting service and we do not contact you or your service is not listed within 48 hours, please contact kathiek@compassionatefriends.org.
Every year you are invited to post a message in the Remembrance Book which will be available, during the event, at TCF’s national website. The Remembrance Book will be open to post a message Tuesday, December 1st, through Monday, December 14th. Photos can be posted on our Worldwide Candle Lighting Facebook page.
The Compassionate Friends and allied organizations are joined by local bereavement groups, churches, funeral homes, hospitals, hospices, children’s gardens, schools, cemeteries, and community centers. Services have ranged in size from just a few people to nearly a thousand.
View International Countries Virtual Worldwide Candle Lighting
If you do not see a candle lighting program in your area, contact your local chapter to see if they are planning a program. Find a chapter.
Virtual
Photos of loved ones will be featured but must be received by November 13
Due to Covid 19 restrictions, we have changed from “in person” to virtual.
We will have a slide show. Pictures need to be submitted by November 30. Send to sueandtcf@yahoo.com no later than November 30.
We will have candles for everyone. Bring a candle if it is special to you.
We will not have snacks, coffee, or raffles this year due to Covid 19. We will have bottled water.
Face masks are required. We will have masks available if needed.
Join us for our annual Worldwide Candle Lighting Event. This year, to keep everyone safe, we will be hosting this event virtually on Zoom.
Zoom opens at 6:45pm, Program begins at 7:00pm
RSVP by Tuesday, December 8th to participate in the zoom event and to receive a program package delivered to your home.
RSVP by Thursday, December 10th to participate in the zoom event only.
If you would like to submit a photo or image in honor of your child for our name reading powerpoint, please send one image in .jpeg format along with their full name to RileyBereavement@IUHealth.org by December 10th
*If you cannot attend but would still like to have your child’s photograph shared and name read, please email us*
Program package delivered to your home contains an battery candle, ornament, program, and kids activity (if applicable)
If you RSVP for the Zoom only event, please bring a candle
Vienna Baptist Church
11 W. Leota Rd., Scottsburg, IN 47170
Readings, Poems, playing music, reading of children’s name, lighting five candles
TCF votive candles,, pictures to place on table,
