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Held annually the second Sunday in December, this year December 14, 2008, The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting unites family and friends around the globe as they light candles for one hour to honor and remember children who have died at any age from any cause. As candles are lit at 7 p.m. local time, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor children in a way that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries. Believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the Worldwide Candle Lighting, TCF’s gift to the bereavement community, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten. The Worldwide Candle Lighting started in the United States in 1997 as a small Internet observance but has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance (in 2007. TCF’s national website was provided information on nearly 500 services held in 21 countries). A Remembrance Book is available during the event at TCF's USA national website. In that short one day span, thousands of messages are received and posted each year from every U.S. state and Washington D.C., every territory, as well as dozens of other countries. Some are in foreign languages. Here in the United States, publicity about the event is widespread, being featured over the years in Dear Abby, Parade Magazine, Ann Landers column, Guideposts magazine, Annie’s Mailbox, and literally hundreds of U.S. newspapers, dozens of television stations, and numerous websites and personal blogs. Information on the Worldwide Candle Lighting and planned memorial candle lighting services (of which we are advised) is posted on the TCF website at www.compassionatefriends.org every year as the event nears. Though National Children’s Memorial Day has faded into the past, the Worldwide Candle Lighting has carried the torch of remembering all children in a special way who have died. If no Worldwide Candle Lighting service was held near you in 2007, please feel free to plan one open to the public this year. You are welcome to use TCF's “Suggestions to Help Plan a Memorial Service in Conjunction with The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting©" to help in planning the service. All allied bereavement organizations, churches, funeral homes, hospices and formal and informal bereavement groups are invited to join in the remembrance. Don't forget to return to this site later this year before the Worldwide Candle Lighting and submit the event information form so TCF can list your service with the many hundreds held in the United States and around the world. The Worldwide Candle Lighting gives bereaved families everywhere the opportunity to remember their child . . . that their light may always shine! FAQs on the Worldwide Candle Lighting What the media said before the 2007 Worldwide Candle Lighting® What the media said after the 2007 Worldwide Candle Lighting®
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the Worldwide Candle Lighting? |
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The mission of The Compassionate Friends
is to assist families toward the positive resolution of grief |
