Worldwide Candle Lighting Memorial ServiceThe 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 10th, 2023 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.
We also will be holding a virtual candle lighting for those who would prefer to attend virtually. We will have four programs in the
Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones.
Register below for your time zone.
Virtual Worldwide Candle Lighting
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 Thursday, December 1st, through Friday, December 16th. 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
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.
Central Presbyterian Church
42 – 2nd St NE
Massillon, Ohio 44646
Special Music
Readings
Sharing of our children, grandchildren, and sibling names as an ornament is placed on the tree.
Pictures
Finder food
Punch will be provided
Fellowship in Fellowship Hall
Zion Lutheran Church, 14 W. Walnut St., Tipp City, OH 45373
We will have a candle lighting ceremony, including reading our children, grandchildren, and sibling names at 3:00 PM,
We then will gather in the church assembly room for a potluck dinner, with meat, tableware, and drinks provided. Each family will receive a carnation at the lighting and an ornament at the dinner.
A photo of your children, grandchildren, and sibling and a dish to share.
Please RSVP with your children. grandchildren, and sibling names, your name and how many will be attending, so that we will have enough candles and ornaments for your children, grandchildren, and sibling and enough food and table settings for you and your group. All are invited, including children. RSVP to: mariahpines@sbcglobal.net
Candle lighting begins at 3:00 PM.
Dinner to follow service, usually around 4:00 4:30.
Old Town Hall
18825 Royalton Road
Strongsville, OH. 44136
Program includes potluck dinner. Attendees are asked to bring a side dish and portrait of their children, grandchildren, and siblings no larger than 8 x 10. Chapter provides ham and rolls as well as drinks. Evening will include readings and slide show of our children, grandchildren, and siblings.
Photo of children, grandchildren, and siblings, no larger than 8 x 10 along with a side dish to share.
Program begins promptly at 6:30 PM with readings and slide show. Photos should be submitted no later than 12/1/2023 or it will not be included in slide show. Photo can be emailed to Don Litvin
Lit@roadrunner.com NO LATER than 12/1/2023.
We will have a potluck along with fellowship.
Attendees must have a reservation. Please arrive between 6:00-6:20 PM as we begin promptly at 6:30 PM.
***NOTE: This program is for current chapter members & their families. Details in email invitations.
Music, slide show, readings & family readings of children. grandchildren, and sibling names.
Details in emails.
Details in emails.
Details in emails.
Feel welcome not to post this event if you are only posting ones open to public.
Rushville Ohio
Poems, speakers’, music, and then candle lighting.
Anything that helps
6:00 pm
Lantern release
I would just like to let people know they are not alone . They are never alone. Feeling alone after the loss of my daughter was almost to much to bear. People need to know there not alone.
