Candlelight evokes so many warm, cozy feelings. Candles are calming and make me feel peaceful and hopeful. And, sometimes candles help create a lovely romantic atmosphere. I recently was browsing through several hundred-year-old magazines, and was surprised to see two items that featured candles.
The first was an advertisement for Minute Tapioca in a 1926 issue of Ladies Home Journal. It included a recipe for Cream Supreme that was embedded in an image of a beautiful tablescape with candles. I probably will never make that recipe, but my eyes lingered for several minutes on the picture. It was so relaxing, and it made me remember times long gone when I ate a special dessert in a room decorated with candles.
A few minutes later, I flipped through a hundred-year-old issue of American Cookery and was surprised to find an article titled “The Charm of Candles.” Here are some excerpts:
The Charm of Candles
Candlelight and the romantic evolution of lighting devices is a truly fascinating thing to think about.
The romance of candlelight remained a shadowy companion to progress. Like some silvery-haired, gentle-faced old lady, candlelight kept alive hallowed memories that linked the present with the past.
Within my own memory is the friendship of candlelight – that little bedside candle of childhood, linking us to a world of reality, with its warm glow after prayers were said.
Have you never lain in a big-four-poster bed watching the dancing shadows your candle cast on the old, hard-hewn timbers? If you have never seen your candle “burn blue with terror”, as the wind steals in noisy gusts about the house, then you certainly have missed a deep, undefinable kinship with the past.
Candlelight against our modern backgrounds has a soothing, quieting influence, like old hands. It offers a sort of antidote for that ache of antiquity which sends us on passionate quests after old furniture, old books, old ships, old pictures, and old things. It indicates our inability to quite sever our life cord from the past.
American Cookery (August September, 1926)
Much has changed over the past hundred years, but some things stay the same. Candlelight still has a soothing, quieting influence.
I love the scent my bayberry candles give off, even when they’re not lit. It’s very soothing and comforting to me. But I understand they were usually saved for special occasions in the past.
Bayberry candles bring back memories of Christmas when I was a child.
I love candles but don’t use them much because of the fear of forgetting to blow them out when I should. I do use a lot of scented waxes in electric warmers.
I have several lovely sets of candlesticks that once were my mother’s, but they just sit in a closet. I always think that I should use them, but somehow never do.
I use candles at Thanksgiving and Christmas. That’s about it!
I used to eat dinner by candlelight quite often. I need to start doing it again.
I should occasionally have dinner by candlelight. It does make a dinner seem special.
Ah well, yes. One New Year’s Eve many years ago, my husband said he wanted to be left alone to prepare a romantic meal. He’s not the world’s most confident cook, and has to concentrate, with a recipe book to hand. He set the table in our kitchen/dining room, lit the candles, to get that job out of the way, and started to cook. Some time later, he glanced across to discover the candles had burnt down, and set the wooden dining table on fire. It was a slow, gentle burn rather than a blaze which is why he hadn’t noticed … the table had to be replaced … (but the evening wasn’t spoilt!)
What a fun story! Thanks for sharing.
More alarming than fun at the time! But yes, a memory to laugh about now.
I owe you an apology. It was a very poor choice of words on my part. It definitely sounds very scary and alarming.
Sheryl, please dont feel guilty. We were never at risk. Just that poor table.
Thanks for the kind words.
A very poetic read!
Thanks! It’s nice to hear that you enjoyed this post.
The picture was lovely. I love to include candles when guest are over.
The recipe didn’t sound that easy to me, but for a fancy dinner party, maybe it was an easy dessert to make compared to a cake.
I did wonder what was at the base of each sherbet glass.
I also wondered what was at the base of each sherbet glass. I thought that it might possibly be a small piece of pink cake. I also thought that it almost looked like it could be a small square of gelatin. I know that gelatin was really popular a hundred years ago, but it doesn’t seem like it would be served by putting a square at the base of a sherbet glass.
It just seems odd. When I make a banana whip to serve in sherbet glasses, I don’t serve any thing else with them. They went to extra steps to put the sherbet glasses on plates to add that pink square.
Agree – it does seem odd. I wish that the old advertisement that included this picture had told us what the pink square was.
They definitely impart a soothing, calming atmosphere, especially now with all the screens and artificial light everywhere we go.
I agree – I also found it fascinating to think about how electric lights would have been relatively new in 1926, and how individuals at that time may have found “modern” lights jarring and not relaxing.
I always light a candle at dinner. I don’t know why I started that habit; it’s not a carry over from childhood. I always found candlelight calming. I also light a candle every morning when I say my prayers. Soon we will be pulling out our Advent wreaths!
I love it. It sounds so calming, and what a wonderful way to make dinner seem special every day. I haven’t done an Advent wreath since my children were small. I should make one this year.
What a wonderful perspective! I love the reminder of how candlelight made life feel special back in 1926 and how it still brings that exact same charm to our dinner tables today. There is truly nothing like it to make a meal feel meaningful.
Both then and now, candlelight can make a meal special.
Oh I do think that candlelight does make a meal extra special. Today it seems that most restaurants don’t use them anymore. I think safety is part of the reason but also dripless candles are expensive.
You’re probably right that safety and cost are reasons that restaurants seldom use candles any more, but I miss them.