Worldwide Candle Lighting Memorial Service
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 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.
Add a Candle Lighting Program
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.
Click on your state below to view Worldwide Candle Lighting events in your area.
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.
Washington
Friday Harbor
Friday Harbor Chapter
- Date & Time:
- December 10, 2023 - 7 PM
- Location:
Windermere Office 55 Spring St. Friday Harbor, WA 98250
- Highlights:
Archie Brooks will be our speaker. I am hoping to have some music. There will be time for sharing and all names will be read.
- Bring:
Photos, remembrances and an open sharing heart.
- Contact:
- Samantha Bryner
- Telephone:
- 360-378-8184
- Email:
- samantha@windermere.com
Bellevue
TCF Eastside Chapter
- Date & Time:
- December 10, 2023 - 6:30 PM for 7:00 PM WCL Program Start
- Location:
Sunset Hills Memorial Park
1215 145th Place SE
Bellevue, WA 98007
- Highlights:
Readings, music, reading of children’s names, and still photos of children, grandchildren, and siblings on screen.
- Special Events (after):
Refreshments following
- Contact:
- Jill Fraley
- Telephone:
- 425 381-7575
- Email:
- jill.s.fraley@gmail.com
- Additional:
For those attending and wishing to have their children, grandchildren, and sibling names read and a photo to be shown on a screen during the program, please provide them to Jill no later than November 29, 2023
Bellingham
TCF of Bellingham
- Date & Time:
- December 10, 2023 - 7:00 PM
- Location:
Christ the Servant Lutheran Church, 1600 Lakeway, Bellingham WA. Enter the building at the very first door as you enter the parking lot from Lakeway.
- Highlights:
There will be music, readings and a slideshow of our loved ones gone too soon.
- Bring:
You are welcome to bring family or close friends, a dessert and remembrance photos.
- Contact:
- Alice J Bell
- Telephone:
- 360-220-8955
- Email:
- tcfbellingham@gmail.com