When we think of candles, we're mainly interested in their scent and appearance. But if we delve a little deeper and truly ponder candles (let him who is without sin cast the first stone), surprising thoughts start popping into our heads, like… hmmm… what's the deal with candles, anyway?
Hold on a minute, who invented candles?
It's often the case with obvious things that we don't think about where they came from. But somewhere, sometime, the first candle must have been born!
The first mentions date back 5000 years; the great-grandmother of the candle was found in Egypt, where sticks were dipped in animal fat. However, it was the Romans who refined early candles with a wick and began dipping rolled papyrus in animal tallow or beeswax (this was a more expensive version for the elite and beekeepers).
It's worth remembering that candles served a completely different purpose then – they were often the only source of light in a home or barn, they were also used in religious ceremonies, supported scholars and monks in studying wise books, and helped lost travellers find their way.
Well, well, well...
The things people come up with!
We say candle, you say scented. And rightly so. After all, it's the first association. Life used to be simpler – there were vanilla candles, fruity ones, and as a wild splurge, cinnamon ones for Christmas. But that's all in the past, because why have less when you can have more? New scents are vying for the top spot in rankings for the most charming, sentimental, quirky, and surprising.
Close your eyes and imagine candles that smell of:
champagne and biscuits
bacon and fried chicken (vegetarians, run for the hills!)
whisky (don't worry, no alcohol involved)
bonfire smoke
a motorcycle engine
cat whiskers (hey, what about dog paws?)
freshly printed newspaper
a full moon (does the moon smell?)
a football pitch.
- Well, I never! While we were creating the first beeswax candles, Native Americans were simultaneously using fish fat, the Japanese used nut oil, and the Chinese used whale blubber. Necessity truly is the mother of invention!
- Candles were used to tell time. They had metal plates embedded at regular intervals, which would fall with a clang onto the candlestick as the wax around them melted, thus announcing that the allotted time for a task or a nap had passed.
- Candles were used in the foggy streets of London as lighting from the 15th century.
- It wasn't until the 19th century that a factory was established, allowing for the mass production of candles; previously, it was a painstaking, manual process.
- We don't have to burn candles all at once. Before relighting some candles, it's worth trimming a few millimetres of the wick to minimise potential soot.
- We all know the idiom "to search with a candle", but do you know what "to stand on a candle" means? It means to stand guard. And a "man like a candle" is a handsome, upright fellow, and those are hard to come by!
These are just a few suggestions from our DISCOUNTED collection, but we'd love to show them off!
Here you'll find all our candles – there are quite a few, so light up the room and find something for yourself! We also have almost 500 candle holders, just saying.
Finally, we encourage you to expand your knowledge about candles – in one episode of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", the million-pound question was about a candle holder, so it really pays off!
