Submitted by Compassionate Friends

The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor the memories of the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and grandchildren who left too soon.

This year’s event will be on Sunday, Dec. 9. As candles are lit at 7 p.m., local time, hundreds of thousands will commemorate the memory of children gone too soon.

Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the 22nd annual Worldwide Candle Lighting creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone.

Started in the United States in 1997 as a small internet observance, the event has since swelled in numbers. 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 children who have died, but will never be forgotten.

The Compassionate Friends and allied organizations are joined by local bereavement groups, churches, funeral homes, hospitals, hospices, children’s gardens, schools, cemeteries, and community centers.

TCF’s website, www.compassionatefriends.org, will host chat rooms and a message board for families to post tributes. Last year there were over 4,000 posted messages from all corners of the world.