Overview
The ceremonial use of lights in the Christian Church probably has a double origin: in a very non-natural symbolism, and in the adaptation of certain pagan and Jewish rites and customs of which the symbolic meaning was Christianized.
Light is everywhere the symbol of joy and of life-giving power, as darkness is of death and destruction. Fire, the most mysterious and impressive of the elements, the giver of light and of all the good things of life, is a thing sacred and adorable in primitive religions, and fire-worship still has its place in two at least of the great religions of the world. The Parsis adore fire as the visible expression of Ahura Mazda, the eternal principle of light and righteousness; the Brahmans worship it as divine and omniscient. The Hindu festival of Diwali (Diyawali, from diya, light), when temples and houses are illuminated with countless lamps, is held every November to celebrate Lakhshmi, the goddess of prosperity.
In the ritual of the Jewish temple fire and light played a conspicuous part. In the Holy of Holies was a cloud of light (shekinali), symbolical of the presence of Yahweh, 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.
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