The ceremonial use of lights occurs in liturgies of various Christian Churches, as well as in Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Hindu rites and customs.
Fire is used as an object of worship in many religions. Fire-worship still has its place in at least two of the great religions of the world. The Zoroastrians revere fire as the visible expression of Ahura Mazda, the eternal principle of light and righteousness; the Hindus worship it as divine and omniscient. One of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, Diwali (from the Sanskrit dīpāwali meaning "row or series of lights") symbolizes the spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance".Jean Mead, How and why Do Hindus Celebrate Divali?,
According to the Talmud and Kabbalah, in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle, there was a cloud of light (shekinah), and before it stood the candlestick with six branches, on each of which and on the central stem was a lamp eternally burning; while in the forecourt was an altar on which the sacred fire was never allowed to go out. Similarly the Jewish synagogues have each their eternal lamp.
Ancient Greece and Rome
The Greeks and Romans, too, had their sacred fire and their ceremonial lights. In Greece the Lampadedromia or Lampadephoria (torch-race) had its origin in Greek ceremonies, connected with the relighting of the sacred fire. Pausaniasi. 26, 6. mentions the golden lamp made by Callimachus which burned night and day in the sanctuary of Athena Polias on the Acropolis, andvii. 22, ~ 2 and 3. tells of a statue of Hermes Agoraios, in the market-place of Pharae in Achaea, before which lamps were lighted. Among the Romans lighted candles and lamps formed part of the cult of the domestic tutelary deities; on all festivals doors were garlanded and lamps lighted.Juvenal, Sat. xii. 92; Tertullian, Apol. xxxv. In the Cult of Isis lamps were lighted by day. In the ordinary temples were candelabra, e.g. that in the temple of Apollo Palatinus at Rome, originally taken by Alexander from Thebes, which was in the form of a tree from the branches of which lights hung like fruit. The lamps in the pagan temples were not symbolical, but votive offerings to the gods. Torches and lamps were also carried in religious processions.
Lamps for the dead The pagan custom of burying lamps with the dead was to provide the dead with the means of obtaining light in the next world; the lamps were for the most part unlighted. It was of Asiatic origin, traces of it having been observed in Phoenicia and in the Punic colonies, but not in Egypt or Greece. In Europe it was confined to the countries under the domination of Rome.
Christianity Early Christian uses
In Christianity, from the very first, fire and light are conceived as symbols, if not as visible manifestations, of the divine nature and the divine presence. Christ is the true Light,John i. 9. and at his transfiguration the fashion Christian of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering;Luke ix. 29. when the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles, there appeared unto them cloven tongues of fire, and it sat upon each of them;Acts ii. 3. at the conversion of St Paul there shined round him a great light from heaven;Acts ix. 3. while the glorified Christ is represented as standing in the midst of seven candlesticks ... his head and hairs white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes as a flame of fire.Rev. ~. 14, 15. Christians are children of Light at perpetual war with the powers of darkness. Light represents the purifying presence of god.
There is no evidence of any ceremonial use of lights in Christian worship during its first two centuries. It is recorded, indeed,Acts xx. 7, 8. that on the occasion of St. Paul's preaching at Alexandria in Troas there were many lights in the upper chamber; but this was at night. And the most that can be hazarded is that a specially large number were lighted as a festive illumination, as in modern Church festivals.Martigny, Did. des antiqs~. C/fret. As to a purely ceremonial use, such early evidence as exists is all the other way. A single sentence of TertullianA pal. xxxv. sufficiently illuminates Christian practice during the 2nd century. On days of rejoicing, he says, we do not shade our door-posts with laurels nor encroach upon the day-light with lamp laurels (). Lactantius, writing early in the 4th century, is even more sarcastic in his references to the heathen practice. They kindle lights, he says, as though to one who is in darkness. Can he be thought sane who offers the light of lamps and candles to the Author and Giver of all light? .Div. Inst. vi. de vero cultu, cap. 2, in Migne, Patrologia Latina vi. 637. This is primarily an attack on votive lights, and does not necessarily exclude their ceremonial use in other ways. There is, indeed, evidence that they were so used before Lactantius wrote. The 34th canon of the Synod of Elvira (305), which was contemporary with him, forbade candles to be lighted in cemeteries during the daytime, which points to an established custom as well as to an objection to it; and in the Roman catacombs lamps have been found of the 2nd and 3rd centuries which seem to have been ceremonial or symbolical.J. Toutain, in Daremberg and Saglio, Diaionnaire, s.v. Again, according to the Acts of St Cyprian (died 258), his body was borne to the grave , and Prudentius, in his hymn on the 2nd and martyrdom of St Lawrence,Peristeph. ii. 71, in Migne, centuries. Patr. Lat. lx. 300. says that in the time of St Laurentius, i.e. the middle of the 3rd century, candles stood in the churches of Rome on golden candelabra. The gift, mentioned by Anastasius,in Sylv. made by Constantine to the Vatican basilica, of a pharum of gold, garnished with 500 dolphins each holding a lamp, to burn before St Peters tomb, points also to a custom well established before Christianity became the state religion.
Whatever previous custom may have been and for the earliest ages it is difficult to determine absolutely because the Christians held their services at night. By the close of the 4th century the ceremonial use of lights had become firmly and universally established in the Church. This is clear, to pass by much other evidence, from the controversy of St Jerome with Vigilantius.
Vigilantius, a presbyter of Barcelona, still occupied the position of Tertullian and Lactantius in this matter. We see, he wrote, a rite peculiar to the pagans introduced into the churches on pretext of religion, and, while the sun is still shining, a mass of wax tapers lighted. ... A great honor to the blessed martyrs, whom they think to illustrate with contemptible little candles (). Jerome, the most influential theologian of the day, took up the cudgels against Vigilantius, who, in spite of his fatherly admonition, had dared again to open his foul mouth and send forth a filthy stink against the relics of the holy martyrs.Hier. Ep. cix. al. 53 ad Ripuarium Presbyt., in Migne, Patr. Lat. p. 906. If candles are lit before their tombs, are these the ensigns of idolatry? In his treatise contra VigilantiumPatr. Lat. t. xxiii. he answers the question with much common sense. There can be no harm if ignorant and simple people or religious women, light candles in honor of the martyrs. We are not born, but reborn, Christians, and that which when done for idols was detestable is acceptable when done for the martyrs. As in the case of the woman with the precious box of ointment, it is not the gift that merits reward, but the faith that inspires it. As for lights in the churches, he adds that in all the churches of the East, whenever the gospel is to be read, lights are lit, though the sun be rising (), not in order to disperse the darkness, but as a visible sign of gladness (). Taken in connection with a statement which almost immediately precedes this , this seems to point to the fact that the ritual use of lights in the church services, so far as already established, arose from the same conservative habit as determined the development of liturgical vestments, i.e. the lights which had been necessary at the nocturnal meetings were retained, after the hours of service had been altered, and invested with a symbolical meaning.
Already they were used at most of the conspicuous functions of the Church. Paulinus, bishop of Nola (died 431), describes the altar at the eucharist as crowned with crowded lights, and even mentions the eternal lamp. For their use at baptisms we have, among much other evidence, that of Zeno of Verona for the West, and that of Gregory of Nazianzus for the East. Their use at funerals is illustrated by Eusebius's description of the burial of Constantine, and Jerome's account of that of Saint Paula. At ordinations they were used, as is shown by the 6th canon of the Council of Carthage (398), which decrees that the acolyte is to hand to the newly ordained deacon . This symbolism was not pagan, i.e. the lamps were not placed in the graves as part of the furniture of the dead; in the Catacombs they are found only in the niches of the galleries and the arcosolia, nor can they have been votive in the sense popularized later. .Poem. De S. Felice natal itium, xiv. ~, in Migne, Patr. Lat. lxi. 467. .Lib. i. Tract. xiv. 4, in Migne, xi. 358. i In sanct. Pasch. c. 2; Migne, Patrologia graeca, xxxvi. 624; Vita Constantini, iv. 66. ..Ep. cviii. ad Eustochium virginem, in Migne.
Middle Ages As to the blessing of candles, according to the Liber pontificalis Pope Zosimus in 417 ordered these to be blessed, and the Gallican and Mozarabic rituals also provided for this ceremony. The Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, known as Candlemas, because on this day the candles for the whole year are blessed, was established according to some authorities by Pope Gelasius I about 492. As to the question of altar lights, however, it must be borne in mind that these were not placed upon the altar, or on a retable behind it, until the 12th century. These were originally the candles carried by the deacons, according to the Ordo Romanus (i. 8; ii. 5; iii. 7) seven in number, which were set down, either on the steps of the altar, or, later, behind it. In certain of the Eastern Churches to this day, there are no lights on the high altar; the lighted candles stand on a small altar beside it, and at various parts of the service are carried by the lectors or acolytes before the officiating priest or deacon. The crowd of lights described by Paulinus as crowning the altar were either grouped round it or suspended in front of it; they are represented by the sanctuary lamps of the Latin Church and by the crown of lights suspended in front of the altar in the Greek.