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Catholic Unity Candle Ceremony
This page offers information
about the lighting up of a unity candle during a Catholic wedding ceremony,
Christian wedding ceremony, or other types of wedding ceremony. Even though
Catholic ceremony of the unity candle is not a part of the Catholic wedding
liturgy per se still it has increasingly become a popular symbolic element
during wedding Mass and nuptial ceremony for Catholic couples.
Catholic unity candle ceremony is a beautiful symbolic
action of the bride and the groom frequently incorporated into Catholic
and other wedding ceremonies. Typically there are three candles: two
smaller candles on the sides and a larger candle in the middle. It is
the larger candle in the middle that is called the “unity candle.” The
candles might be placed somewhere in the presbyterium (the area where
the altar is located in church), under the gazebo, on the side of the
gazebo or wedding arch or in any other location that is well visible and
not too far from the wedding couple. The two smaller candles might be
lit at the beginning of the wedding ceremony during the processional.
Frequently, the mothers (sometimes the grandmothers) light the two side
candles. The celebrant (priest, minister, officiant, rabbi) might also
invite the mothers to come forward in the course of the ceremony to
light up the side candles. The first option, that is, lighting of the
candles during the processional places less emphasis on the mothers.
The second choice, having the mothers come forward in the middle of the
ceremony, gives much more prominence to the mothers of the bride and the
groom. Lighting up of the candles by the mothers reminds that they gave
physical life to their children who are about to begin a new family. It
is significant to notice during this unity candle ceremony that the
children (bride and groom) are represented by the light. At a certain
point during the ceremony the bride and the groom approach the unity
candle pick up the two lit side candles and together light up the larger
candle in the middle. In this way from two they have become as one. At
this point the two side candles are blown which means that the bride and
the groom are no longer two but one. Although the ceremony of the unity
candle can be performed at various moments during the wedding mass,
nuptial ceremony without communion or other wedding ceremony, the most
appropriate time to do it is after the bride and groom pronounced their
vows and exchanged the wedding rings.
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