page_title: Ceremonial use of lights
section_title: Lutheran usage
hierarchical_section_title: Ceremonial use of lights / Christianity / Lutheran usage
caption_attribution_description: English: All Saints Day in Röke, Sweden. Svenska: Alla helgons dag i Röke i Sverige.
context_page_description: The ceremonial use of lights occurs in liturgies of various Christian Churches, as well as in Jewish, Zoroastrian and Hindu rites and customs.
  Light is everywhere the symbol of joy and of life-giving power, as darkness is of death and destruction. Fire as an impressive element in worship has been used in many religions. Fire-worship still has its place in at least two 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 Hindu Brahmins worship it as divine and omniscient. One of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, Diwali symbolizes the spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance".
  In the ritual of the Jewish temple fire and light played a conspicuous part. In the Holy of Holies was a cloud of light, symbolical of the presence of God, 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.
context_section_description: In the Lutheran Churches they were retained, and in Evangelical Germany have even survived most of the other medieval rites and ceremonies (e.g. the use of vestments) which were not abolished at the Reformation itself. The custom of placing lighted candles around the bodies of the dead is still practised by Lutherans.
caption: A Christian cemetery outside an Evangelical Lutheran church (Church of Sweden) in Röke, Sweden on the Feast of All Hallows. Flowers and lighted candles are placed by relatives on the graves of their deceased loved ones.
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