Worldwide Candle Lighting

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The initiative Worldwide Candle Lighting (International Worldwide Candle Lighting supported) and celebrated on the second Sunday of December an annual World Day of Remembrance for deceased children. The initiators and supporters invite relatives all over the world to commemorate their deceased children, grandchildren and siblings on this day.

In Germany, the initiative is primarily supported by the Federal Association of Orphaned Parents , an association of self-help groups for grieving parents. The association describes the proposed approach and the meaning and symbolism of the same as follows:

Every year on the 2nd Sunday in December, for many years, people around the world have been putting burning candles in their windows at 7:00 p.m. While the candles go out in one time zone, they are lit in the next, so that a wave of light surrounds the whole world for 24 hours. Every light in the window represents the knowledge that these children have brightened life and that they will never be forgotten. The light also stands for the hope that the grief does not let the life of the loved ones stay dark forever. The light builds bridges from one affected person to another, from one family to another, from one house to another, from one city to another, from one country to another. It assures those affected of solidarity with one another. It warms the cold life a little and will spread like a first ray of sunshine in the morning.

In addition, self-help groups invite you to joint memorial and mourning events and small texts on the subject of remembrance and mourning are entered on condolence pages on the Internet.

history

The idea goes back to an association of orphaned parents and their relatives in the USA, the “Compassionate Friends”, who started this initiative in 1996. The website Gedenkseiten.de reports on the history of the initiative: The Compassionate Friends initiative is a self-help association. It was founded in England over forty years ago when a chaplain discovered by chance that the grieving parents could help each other much better than he could as a pastor . The shared experience was so connecting that other methods lagged behind. ... The American name of the day of remembrance has meanwhile been protected by trademark law against abuse, but the association still expressly wishes the public dissemination of information , posters and the official logo in the interests of the children.

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.veid.de/aktuell/veranstaltungen/gedenkenag.html
  2. http://www.veid.de/aktuell/veranstaltungen/gedenkenag.html Explanation text below; Retrieved October 16, 2012
  3. z. B. Archived copy ( Memento of May 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. Worldwide Candle Lighting ( Memento from October 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  5. http://www.gedenkseiten.de/magazin/worldwide-candle-lighting/

Web links

German speaking

English speaking