Social Candle Making

 

In the not too distant past in colonial times, candle making was still an art but less of a hobby and more of a social gathering activity. Women would invite their cousins, mother, friends and neighbors to join in the fun or was it work. They would do this on a rotational basis so a little like the come for dinner honor system where we go to someone's house and then change to someone else's house for the next week or month (to have less cleaning for one person and also to not take advantage of that person and their home).

 

Why Was Candle Making Help Needed?

 

Candle making help was needed because there were so many candles that were required to be made to fulfil the household quotas. In the olden days because there was no electricity, this meant that without candles you were without light. There was a definite need for clubbing together as a group to make these candles and also it added to the women's social network. What better way to while away the day than make candles, but not just that, to make candles and in certain instances meet new neighbors and gossip with the current guests about anything and anything of interest.

 

How Many Candles?

 

It may take a long amount of time for you as a hobbyist to make your one single candle but in colonial days the home candle makers had to make anywhere between 300-500 candles for one years supply. In the space of a week or a few days the home candles makers set aside for the candle making, they would work like busy bees in order to complete the work and task in hand in quicktime. They were probably a lot quicker than us hobbyists due to their tall order to complete. Even though we have our modern craft stores to buy our candle making supplies they could still beat us hands down with more primitive accessories.

 

A Life Without Candles.

 

If they hadn't known of candles in those days, I wonder what life would have been like? Would everything just have stopped after sundown? Would they have sat outside around by a burning campfire? Would they have just sat in the dark in a lonely lightless house? Who knows what they would have done? Thankfully, they did have candles, so the colonial times was not an age of dark but an age of light, low, romantic, flickering, shimmering light.