Friday, December 07, 2007

The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle LIghting

The Compassionate Friends
Worldwide Candle Lighting ®

Held annually the second Sunday in December, this year December 9, The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor and remember children who have died at any age from any cause. As candles are lit at 7 p.m. local time, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor children in a way that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries.

The Worldwide Candle Lighting is a gift from The Compassionate Friends to the bereavement community allowing us all to join together in unity to remember and honor the memories of all children so they may never be forgotten.

Believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the Worldwide Candle Lighting creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. 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 special children to always be remembered.

The Worldwide Candle Lighting started in the United States in 1997 as a small Internet observance but, as it has been embraced by the bereavement community, has swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance. A memorial message board is available during the event at TCF's USA website http://www.compassionatefriends.org/. Thousands of postings are received each year from all over the United States, as well as dozens of other countries, with many messages in foreign languages.

Here in the United States, publicity about the event is widespread, being featured in the past in Parade Magazine, Ann Landers column, Guideposts magazine, Annie’s Mailbox, and literally hundreds of U.S. newspapers, dozens of television stations, and numerous websites. Information on the Worldwide Candle Lighting and planned memorial candle lighting services is posted on the TCF website at http://www.compassionatefriends.org/ each year as the event nears.

For many of the years of the Worldwide Candle Lighting, the United States Senate has joined in its observance through the unanimous passage of resolutions declaring the second Sunday in December National Children’s Memorial Day. TCF/USA appreciates our government’s understanding of what the Worldwide Candle Lighting means to so many.

The Worldwide Candle Lighting gives bereaved families everywhere the opportunity to remember their child . . . that their light may always shine!

Posted by Henry (Calem's Opa) :: 10:30 PM :: 0 people are more aware ---------------------------------------