2024 Paschal Candle: The Genesis Candle | Church of the Resurrection

Editor’s note: The Episcopal tradition of the Paschal candle includes introducing a new candle at the Easter Vigil where it is blessed and put into use for the first time. We then continue to light it every Sunday of Eastertide (through Pentecost) and for any memorial services, weddings, baptisms, or other special occasions.

Just 10 days before the Easter Vigil Service, I picked up the new, three-foot-tall candle at church. I had been waiting its arrival and had spent time looking at candle makers online for inspiration. A meeting with Rev. Liz confirmed my intuition that this year’s candle should be colorful and impressionistic. The candle photo that inspired me was called, The Genesis Candle” based on Genesis 1:14-19 which speaks of the two luminaries or great lights and the stars.

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I began by designing a two-dimensional artwork the actual size of the candle so I could see where to place the elements I thought important: 3 crosses spaced in a band around the candle, moons, stars, a morning star, sun, spirals, Greek letters of Alpha and Omega and the date. This artwork gave me a framework from which I could transfer the design to the curved surface of the candle. I could only work on about 2-3 inches at a time. Using transparent and handmade papers I created layers of blues, greens and turquoise. Several layers of a gloss medium glued the papers to the waxy candle and protected its surface.

Art often provides a lesson in the creating. After five days of working, I was getting close to finishing the design when I noticed that my design on the candle was upside-down. I had not placed the wick end of the candle at the top of my artwork. My heart seemed to drop down to my stomach—all I could think to do was to go outside and pull weeds! It didn’t take me long to realize that a good composition of an art piece can be viewed from all angles and all I needed to do was to take off the Alpha and Omega symbols and cut new ones to be glued on. What a humbling experience! Yet in the end Rev. Liz and I later agreed that we liked the upside-down design better than the original. Sometimes in life upside-down is really right-side up!

— Carol Held

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