Meaning of Christmas Candle

The Christmas Candle

Many years ago there was an old shoemaker and his wife who lived in a village on the edge of Austria; though they were very poor, they were always ready to help those in need. Each evening these dear people placed a lighted candle in the window of their humble cottage as a sign of welcome to anyone who might pass by. War came and there was famine, yet somehow through it all, that candle burned as bright as ever. The other villagers could not understand why the shoemaker and his wife were always at peace with the world. The shoemaker said it was because of the candle. “How can peace come from a candle?” they asked. “Peace and light are one,” the shoemaker pointed out. 

It was late December and the war still raged. People longed for pace. “Let us put a candle in our window as a prayer for peace,” they said. And so they did! Christmas Eve came and there were candles in every window. The day dawned and a messenger rode into the village with the news that peace had come. The grateful people thanked God and vowed each year to keep the custom of lighting a candle on the Eve of Christ’s Birth. Since then, the lovely custom of having a light placed in the window has spread all over the world as a sign of hope and friendship, the lighted candle itself becoming the emblem of peace and love  a precursor of the Christmas Star we place in our window or doorway.