Origin 300 to 400 CE
A large candle lit from new fire at the Easter Vigil and kept burning through the fifty days of Eastertide, then used at baptisms and funerals through the year. It is marked with a cross, the Greek letters alpha and omega, the current year, and five grains of incense set into the wax at the points of the cross for the wounds of Christ.
The Vigil begins in darkness. The candle is lit outside, carried into an unlit church, and the congregation's candles are lit from it as it advances, so that the light spreads through the building from a single flame. Whatever one makes of the theology, the staging is unusually direct.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItClergy or ordained officiants only 1 ConsecrationBlessed before use, without a rite of consecration 1 Origins
Origin Period Learn More
The Candle That Carries the Light of Easter Through the Year
The paschal candle is a large candle lit from new fire at the Easter Vigil, and it is the central visual sign of the resurrection in the Western liturgy.
Light out of darkness
At the Easter Vigil, in a dark church, new fire is struck and the paschal candle lit from it and carried in, the light spreading from it to the candles of the whole congregation as the deacon proclaims the coming of the light of Christ. The candle is marked with a cross, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and the numerals of the year, with five grains of incense set into the cross for the wounds of Christ, so that the object itself states that Christ is the beginning and the end and the Lord of all time. The great hymn of praise, the Exsultet, is sung before it.
Through the fifty days and beyond
The candle burns at the principal services through the fifty days of Eastertide, standing in the sanctuary as the sign of the risen Christ present with his church. After that it is kept by the font and lit at baptisms, where the candle of the newly baptised is kindled from it, linking each new Christian to the resurrection, and it is lit again at funerals and set by the coffin, so that the same flame that opened Easter accompanies a Christian into and out of the church. One candle thus threads together Easter, baptism and death.
What Is Pressed into the Wax, and What Is Left of It by Spring
A paschal candle is expected to be pure or largely pure beeswax rather than the cheaper paraffin used for ordinary altar candles, a material distinction that has practical roots, beeswax burns cleaner and was historically the product of monastic beekeeping.
What is marked into it, and by whom
At the Easter Vigil the presiding priest cuts a cross into the wax with a stylus, adds the Greek letters alpha and omega above and below it, and marks the four digits of the current year in the corners, speaking a formula as each mark is made. Five grains of incense, representing the wounds of Christ, are then pressed into the cross and the candle is lit from a new fire blessed outside the church that same night, the only light in the building until that flame spreads through the congregation's own candles.
What becomes of it over the year
The paschal candle burns at every baptism and funeral through the year and stands lit near the altar through the Easter season, so by the following spring it is usually reduced to a stub, at which point it is retired and a new one blessed rather than relit from itself. Some parishes melt down what remains into smaller candles rather than discarding the wax, a minor but continuous form of reuse for an object that is otherwise consumed entirely by its own purpose.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The Paschal candle is lit from new fire at the Easter Vigil.
The Paschal candle is kept burning through the fifty days of Eastertide.
Jesus, Figures The Paschal Candle is marked with five grains of incense set into the wax for the wounds of Christ.
Belongs to Tradition
Element Of
Lit from the new fire at the Easter vigil and burned through the fifty days, at baptisms and at funerals.
Sources
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