Recently we talked about how flameless graveside candles are the best option for keeping the flame of faith alive through snow and rain and wind. Your thoughts and love for the person you lost certainly won’t flicker with poor weather, and neither should your memorial candle.
We all understand the sentimental value of a traditional wax and flame candle, but to be fair, flameless cemetery candles have some wonderful advantages to them. Their durability being one such advantage.
How Cost Effective is Cost Effective?
Another significant advantage of LED grave candles is their reasonable cost. If you wanted to have a one-year candle vigil at your loved one’s grave, you would have to purchase 52 traditional 7-day memorial candles at a cost of about $7 each. That’s $364 just in the first year—never mind that in future years you will want to light a candle for them on the anniversary of their death as well.
Our beautiful Sentinel Legacy battery operated grave candles have a realistic candle glow, will burn reliably night and day through rain, sleet, snow, dust, or wind, and cost only $175—about 50% of what traditional 7-day memorial candles would cost for that same period of time. And when you add a 1-year factory warranty to their reliability and cost effectiveness, battery operated cemetery candles become very appealing indeed.
History of Seven Day Candles
In Genesis 50:1-14, Jacob, the father of the nation of Israel, died. His son Joseph had him embalmed, buried him, and spent seven days in deep mourning. The word seven in Hebrew is shiva. Thus began the tradition of mourning a person for seven days from the day of their burial, or “sitting shiva” and lighting a shiva candle.
Lighting a candle that never goes out represents hope and remembrance from several points of view:
- Jesus is the light of the world, through whom we have hope. (John 8:12)
- “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord” (Prov. 20:27)
- The continual flame of a memorial candle represents our continuing love for the person who is no long here.
History of the One Year Memorial Candle
Throughout history, the traditional period of deep mourning has been one year. A deceased loved one leaves a gap in our lives that can never be filled, but over the course of the first year of their absence, we learn to live without them in most ways.
Following that tradition, many cultures and religions formalize the grieving process over the first year of loss, including lighting a memorial candle that never goes out. This can be done at the graveside, in a mausoleum, in a person’s home, or in a church sanctuary, where the grieving person can come and visit the lit candle and say a prayer for them.
The Flameless Invention
For nearly 30 years, SmarLite has been a pioneer in flameless memorial candle technology. Considering there are about 2,500 deaths and 12,600 injuries each year in America from home fires, this combination of ambiance and technology is considered by most to be a wonderful invention. Most insurance companies give a price break for churches who utilize them in their sanctuaries, and cemeteries are much more likely to allow LED cemetery candles with a proper anchoring system than they are to allow live flame.
As people in mourning, any safe, reliable, cost-effective way to commemorate our absent loved one is a good thing. A steady “flame” of remembrance will help anchor our hope and our love every time we see it and teach us to move forward with life even as we cherish our memories.
