Light a candle for a birthday — one that stays
Most online birthday candles are a cake you blow out and a tab you close. This one takes a permanent place on a public wall with their name on it, and you send them the link. It works for a birthday you are celebrating and for the birthday of someone who is no longer here — the day comes round either way.
A birthday for someone who is gone
Their birthday keeps arriving. For a lot of people it is harder than the anniversary of the death, because it used to be a good day and there is now nowhere to put it.
A candle with their name and the date is somewhere to put it — a place that will still be there next year, and the year after, that you can send to the people who also remember.
A birthday for someone who is here
It is an unusual gift, and that is exactly why it works: it costs less than a card, it arrives as a link, and it never ends. A year later it is still burning with their name on it — something no e-card can do.
Write the message the way you would say it out loud. It does not have to be serious — a funny message on a candle is still a real candle.
What do they see when they open the link?
Their own candle, on its own page, with the name and the words you wrote and the date it was lit — and a way through to the wall to see it standing among the rest.
- Light a candle in memory of someone — and it stays — For someone you have lost — their name on the wall, in a place that stays.
- Light a candle for someone’s recovery — For someone who is ill — yours or theirs, with a link you can send them.
- Light a candle for a wish or a dream — An exam, a new job, a move — a wish put somewhere it will not sit in a drawer.
- Light a candle for someone and send them the link — For a bad week, or just because — something that took more than typing a message.
- Light a candle to say thank you — For the teacher, the nurse, the friend who showed up — and never heard it.
- What One Million Candles is, and why it exists