The visitor's initials, plus a brief memorial message, prayer or inspirational note, accompanies each candle left on the site. Over 24 hours, each candle appears to burn down, until it goes out and is replaced by someone else's candle, initials and message. Nearly all religious traditions use light as a positive symbol, although lighting prayer candles is most closely associated in this country with Catholicism. The designers behind Light a Candle worked hard to create a simple, yet inspiring visual environment, said Linda Fisher, a Web developer at Cornell University who worked on the spiritual Web site in her spare time. It was time-consuming to make the flames flicker naturally.
Nothing is sold on the site.
Computers are all around us now, and they tend to rush us along so fast. We really want to create a different kind of space to help people with their lives.