The Light Of Light: Birthday Candle

In birthday parties one would always notice the light atop the cake. It has been said by many that this represents a symbol of one’s wish that has been longingly kept up to the day of his or her birthday. Below blowing such wish is being mentioned mentally by the birthday celebrator. As the candle is blown, the deal was sealed and the wish will come true in a matter of minutes to days, to weeks, to months or years. But it will truly come. This great belief has been passed down from one generation to the next. Kids had been kept by their parents to stay true to such belief in the hope that they would learn to keep on wishing and believing that someday the wish will come true, that life would give them something good in the future. But how did all these wishes, beliefs and commitment to such belief, started? Where do these natal candles originated from?

History has it, this style of lighting a candle on top of a cake came from the ancient Greeks. The Greeks of the ancient world, has been putting candles on their cakes as an offering to the goddess of the moon, to the goddess Artemis. The cake being in a circular form and the candle giving a little glow on top of it is said to represent or symbolize the moon itself. Thus, this is the perfect offering for the goddess. On the other hand, the Germans, after mastering themselves with the craft of candle making, have generated their own belief. Big candles are placed at the center of their cakes to represent the light of life. This huge candle is carved by the Germans with line and numbers, usually the number 12. It is the candle that should be burned every year, thus come the belief incorporated as the birthday candle to one’s birthday. From such beliefs numerous others have started to come alive as well.

On the part of the scholars, they have gathered that the tradition of placing candles on cakes is originated by people who believed that gods lived in the skies. For them, lighting a candle aids one’s prayers and wishes to be sent to the god so that answers would come soon. This for them is considered to be most effective. Another is from the belief held by people who see the image of completely blowing the birthday candle means that the wish or message was received by the god and that his or her prayers and wishes would be answered.

Numerous beliefs, histories and studies have come to explain the existence of candle. Surely, this proves that a small well lit candle atop the birthday cake truly holds a mystery in one way or another. In this great representation of light, life or wish, the candle provides more than its great design and integral part of the birthday cake. Whatever a person believes in such candle, that belief is the one that shapes him or her to be the person that he or she is aspiring to become. This is beyond what a birthday cake or a birthday candle can truly give. And that ladies and gentlemen, is the true light of life and of human being that is blown and respected in every birthday party there is.