ist, is kindled, and all
candles throughout the year are lighted from this. During the service of
Holy Week thirteen lighted candles are placed before the altar and as
the penitential songs are sung they are extinguished one by one. When
but one remains burning it is carried behind the altar, thus symbolizing
the last days of Christ on earth. It is said that this ceremony has been
traced to the eighth century. On Easter Eve, after the new fire is
lighted and blessed, certain ceremonies of light symbolize the
resurrection of Christ. From this new fire three candles are lighted and
from these the Paschal Candle. The origin of the latter is uncertain,
but it symbolizes a victorious Christ. From it all the ceremonial lights
of the church are lighted and they thereby are emblematic of the
presence of the light of Christ.

Many interesting ceremonial uses may be traced out, but space permits a
glimpse of only a few. At baptismal services the paschal candle is
dipped into the water so that the latter will be effective as a
regenerative element. The baptized child is reborn as a child of light.
Lighted candles are placed in the hands of the baptized persons or of
their god-parents. Those about to take vows carry lights before the
church official and the same idea is attached to the custom of carrying
or of holding lights on other occasions such as weddings and first
communion. Lights are placed around the bodies of the dead and are
carried at the funeral. They not only protect the dead from the powers
of darkness but they symbolize the dead as still living in the light of
Christ. The use of lighted candles around bodies of the dead still
survives to some extent among Protestants, but their significance has
been lost sight of. Even in the eighteenth century funerals in England
were accompanied by lighted tapers, but the carrying of lights in other
processions appears to have ceased with the Reformation. In some parts
of Scotland it is still the custom to place two lighted candles on a
table beside a corpse on the day of the funeral.

With the importance of light in the ritual of the church it is not
surprising that the extinction of lights is a part of the ceremony of
excommunication. Such a ceremony is described in an early writing thus:
"Twelve priests should stand about the bishop, holding in their hands
lighted torches, which at the conclusion of the anathema or
excommunication they should cast down and trample under foot."