What is a Unity Candle? How is it used during wedding ceremonies?
Traditionally, during a wedding ceremony three candles are positioned at the altar. These three candles usually consist of one pillar candle, (the Unity Candle), centered between two taper candles, (the “side candles”). During the ceremony, the bride and groom each light the side candles from burning altar candles. The couple then lights the Unity Candle in the center from their respective side candles and extinguish the side candles. This act symbolizes the bride and groom “becoming one in marriage”. A contemporary variation on this tradition is to have the parents of the bride and groom, or the brides maid and best man, light the side candles from the altar candles and to have the bride and groom take their respective parents’ side candle to light the Unity Candle. We still hand pour a molded unity candle called the ‘Lovers Candle’. A celebrity once called me who had just gotten a divorce, and she said she burned off the husbands half of the candle.
